The Saphirre moon
by April.Chloe.Swan
Summary: when Bella travels to Italy to save Edward, she returns with more then just the love of her life. She comes back with April, a 16 yr old girl who learns to live with vampires as well as the other obstacles life throws at her. original cast, canon pairing
1. the road to Bella

_Edwards POV_

_The road to Bella_

I was walking through the crowded streets of Italy, not really paying attention to where I was going. The people around me passed in a blur of colours, mostly red, and thoughts, but I was not paying attention to any of that. There was only one thing I was paying attention to, and that was finally being with Bella, my Bella, the love of my life, no, she was more then that she was my life.

I couldn't believe what Rosalie had said I could not believe it was true, but of course it was, Alice was not wrong, Alice was never wrong. So I was on my way to my doom, no I could not believe that any place where Bella was, was doomed, so I was on my way to Bella, my Bella… my Bella with her soft brown hair and even softer and more beautiful eyes… her face, her beautiful face… even her attitude was amazing, the way she was so stubborn and how her chin jutted when she was set on something… that something that I always wanted to know but never could, because she was different then everyone else she was immune to me…

Two things seemed to happen simultaneously then, at the exact moment that I had that thought , about Bella, about the way I couldn't hear her thoughts, my senses kicked in and I realized the strange silence immediately. It was coming from just behind me where I had just pushed past a bunch of people, but it couldn't have been her, I would have noticed I would have picked up on that face… on those eyes. I was letting my brain drift away again, letting my whole being fill with hope, a hope that I knew to be impossible, but that I so desperately wanted… _stop it Edward, _I chided myself _its not her she's gone, gone to a place where she's waiting for you… where you can finally be together… without the danger… that's what you want right?_

I stood there for what seemed like eternity to me, but couldn't have been. I stood there thinking, sure this was what I wanted, but I couldn't let myself walk away knowing that she could be standing right behind me.

I made my decision then, in the second that seemed like eternity, I had to see for myself just in case there was the tiniest shred of hope that what waited behind me was what I had been waiting for, for my whole existence, but I couldn't let myself hope, it was stupid I couldn't let my heart, that I didn't have, shatter into more then a thousand pieces that would be near impossible to put back together, so I took 3 deep breaths In the time it would of taken a human to take one, and turn around quickly…

My heart would not have shattered but would have stopped, at what I saw now, it was definetly wasn't what I expected… wanted… longed to see, but I couldn't say I was completely disappointed either.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, she was so much like her, but at the same time the complete opposite, she had the same shape of the face, the same body, there was only a few differences, one was the eyes, they were blue, instead of brown, though the were still large, and had the same look of curiosity, instead of fear or concern, as normal people would. Also, her hair wasn't the soft brown colour of hers, I now refused to even think the name, no it was instead a strange colour, it was red, but never a red that I had seen before, not like Victoria's, I shuddered to think the name of the women, that I had been trying, and failing to catch for the last six months, no this was not the crazy, wildly bright red of hers, this colour was too soft it still reminded me, of the brown, with its softness. I was close to blonde like it was working its way there, but hadn't quite got there yet. There were blonde streaks though, and this proved my theory, these streaks were not fake, she did not look like a fake sort of girl… just like her… I pulled myself out before I could go any deeper into my thoughts and went back to my evaluation of this strange person standing in front of me. So very much like her. She stood her ground and did not run away screaming, like the human she was. She was almost exactly like her staring at me with her curious, blue eyes, her bright blue, almost sapphire eyes.

Slowly she turned her head slightly to the side. Still trying to figure me out I assumed. When I still did nothing, but stare back, she slowly and deliberately took a step towards me, straightening up her head as she did. I was then that I noticed to biggest difference between them. This girl did not hold herself the way Bella would. Whereas Bella would have her shoulders slightly bent forward and her face facing down, not quite sure of herself, probably waiting for rejection or, more believably, to fall on her face, this girl walked forward with a strange confidence, it wasn't that she believed that she wouldn't fall on her face, she actually looked like they might have that similarity to, but it was more that she didn't care, she didn't care if she did, if everyone stared at her and laughed, that the attention would worry her, no, she seemed like she could handle that.

But, still I felt this strange compulsion to protect her, not the same way as I did Bella, but more like a big brother would protect a sibling.

I felt overwhelmed; I could not worry about this I had enough to worry about. Bella was waiting for me… my sweet, innocent Bella. That was all that mattered I turned away from the strange distraction and ran towards my destiny. Even though I ran with such speed, I knew that the Volturi would not interfere; they would wait until I carried out my plan…


	2. Vampire stories

A's POV

I saw him in hurry, walking fast; too fast I thought to be actually considered rational. I wondered why he was in such a hurry, for angel he looked quite distressed. His perfect forehead was creased, into an emotion I could not identify, over his gorgeous eyes. However, my musings did not become full blown curiosity until he pushed past me in that awful hurry of his. He pushed past me with such force, that the blow mixed with my nature clumsiness caused me to stumble backwards. This was not what concerned me though, when his arm brushed against mine, I felt a chill. That was definitely not normal, I decided. This was not just a chill that you get from being out in the cold for too long, which would not have made sense anyway, we were in the middle of Italy for Christ sake. No I decided that it was more then that, that it was not a superficial chill but one that came from him no matter what almost like it was settled inside of him.

I regained my posture and turned around preparing to stare after him. There was no need for that, he had stopped about 2 feet away from me, still with his back turned and seemed to be struggling with something. Even from the back I couldn't deny that he looked, well, perfect. I could see slight muscles straining against the back of the shirt that he wore. However, they were not quite big enough to look completely menacing. I stopped staring at his back and moved up to his head. His hair was an unusual bronze colour, which looked like it was rather messy most days, but even more so today, like he had ran his hand through more then a few times in anguish. This seemed like a reasonable explanation and now that I looked a little closer, I realised this is exactly how he looked, like he was in physical pain somehow and was completely defeated. He shoulders slouched and his head was bent down. His hand was up to his face, his fingers squeezing his nose at the top, like he was trying to make a very hard decision.

Somehow, though he still managed to look unbelievably beautiful. I stood there admiring him until he dropped his hands, seeming to make up his mind. Then turned around so fast it stunned me for a moment.

That didn't last for long though as curiosity soon took its place again. I stared up at this curious creature, hardly daring to breathe, scared for some reason that it would ruin his perfectness, because this is exactly what he seemed to be, perfect. I started from his neck as this was all I reached up to and slowly moved my eyes upwards. I took in his strong jaw line, his full lips, his straight nose, and his high cheekbones and finally rested on his eyes. It was these that took me most by surprise, I was expecting them to be a brilliant shade of green, it seemed an appropriate colour to go with the rest of his features, but they were a startling shade of black. A colour that I thought to be a very unnatural colour.

I was not the colour that got me interested though it was the range of emotions that fleeted through them that intrigued me.

In the single second that we stood there they managed to show first hope, then disappointment, and then mirrored my curiosity. He seemed to stay curious for a while, but not for more then about five seconds and it was the last look that showed that pulled a frown on my face. I say look because it started as a pain that seemed to strangle him slowly inside. Then his face crumbled, and I realised what was so strange about him sure he was pale and I could feel the cold from where I stood, but that was not what held my curiosity the most and it wasn't until it crumbled that I realised he looked as hard and set as a rock.

A rock that was crumbling right before my eyes. I felt that I should do something, he looked in so much pain I couldn't bear it. I went to take a step forward and lifted my head up a bit. Then he mumbled something and turned and ran. I blinked hard wondering what I had done, and he was gone.

I put my foot back where I lifted it from and became very much confused. I wondered what I had done to make him run from me. It could have been my confidence, my mother was always rambling on about how I intimidated people sometimes I had once asked her why this was and she said that I looked to innocent and people expected me to be shy. I thought about this for a moment, could I have intimidated this extraordinary guy? No I did not think that was possible he did not look like the type that got intimidated easily; no he would do the intimidating, I decided. He did a pretty good job on me. I shook my head as I thought this. I hated that, I hated admitting that someone could have that much power over me and he didn't even look like he was trying, he was way too distracted. I shuddered to think how much more effective that would be normally.

I stood there for a while longer and thought about the way he had just stood there, so still like he didn't even need to fidget. I women pushed past me then surprising me.

When did people get so close? No, wait. When did they move in the first place? I struggled hard to think, but the last time I remembered being pushed by the crowd, was when a very cold arm touched mine. Did _he _have anything to do with it? I didn't remember a crowd while he was around.

It was almost as if everyone else was avoiding him. I turned around to look at the people surrounding the courtyard where I stood, no-one seemed to notice anything different. I looked across the courtyard why I was here.

I saw the face of the person I had been longing to see for days. _Oh gosh, his a hunk! _I thought my face turning red at the turn my thoughts had taken. That was when I realised something. The man that had been standing in front of me 3 seconds earlier didn't seem to put the same thoughts in my head. Sure he was breathtakingly beautiful, but I had merely admired his features. I hadn't even blushed the way I usually did, when someone so attractive was near. But then I thought about a bit more and had my answer almost straight away.

I didn't have those thoughts because I knew somehow that, he did not belong to me, he belonged to someone very special and somehow I knew not to mess with this, because that person was important somehow.

Then I realised what he had mumbled before running away. "Bella…"

And then he was gone. I wondered briefly about who this Bella may be. Someone very lucky, I thought to myself. That was the last thought I had of the strange encounter, as Aden was standing in front of me then, having ran across the courtyard to meet me. "Hiya April" he said a huge smile still managed to slip across his face even though he was bent over to catch his breath.

_Definitely a hunk, and his all mine. _I almost went giddy at the thought. Instead I controlled my breathing and said as normally as I could. "Hey… so what did I miss?"

Aden looked absolutely gorgeous as he stood there trying to catch his breath. His tanned face was sweaty and he shook some sweat out of his blonde locks. He stood up finally and narrowed his blue eyes. He ignored my question and asked one if his own.

"Who was that?"

I was utterly confused. Who was he talking about? I had been standing here waiting for him.

"What do u mean?"

"That freaky, pale tall guy that was staring at you a minute ago, April."

"Oh" I suddenly knew exactly who he meant know and my memory came back to be bringing back images of the mysterious guy who was standing in the same spot Aden stood right now.

"I have no idea." I said truthfully, though he must have seen something else besides confusion in my face, because I could soon see the jealousy in his eyes.

"Seriously just some weirdo tourist I guess." His eyes softened and he grabbed my hand. I smiled up at him.

"So what do we do for Saint Marcus Day anyway?" I asked him.

He looked disbelieving the same as he had looked a couple of days ago when I had told him that I had never been to a Saint Marcus Day celebration.

"I'm a tourist remember' I pointed out.

He laughed. "Yeah but still, never?"

"Nop, never."

"Hmm well I guess first we need to go shopping."

Now it was my turn to look disbelieving _he_ wanted to go _shopping!_ I looked down at myself, yes I was dressed, and rather nicely I thought. What does he think I need?

"For what?" I asked confused.

"Red." He said simply.

"Oh" I said. Now that he mentioned it a lot of people were wearing red. Actually everyone was wearing red. Except me. Must be another tradition, like wearing fangs and cloaks. It all seemed ironic, that they celebrated running things out of town by dressing up like them. I giggled then and Aden looked down at me with questioning eyes. I just shook my head.

"So which shop's first?"

…

I stood less then an hour later in a red sweater and my black shorts. I was happy with this, but I still longed to go into the little boutiques that lined the streets. However, I did not have the money for those sorts of shops, so this was the next best thing.

"It looks great" he said.

But as I looked up I could see his eyes drifting back from a rather beautiful girl standing in the shadows.

"So what's next?"

"Umm…" he looked nervous like he was not at all sure. I laughed softly at his lack of words, and blushed when he looked down at me.

"Any ideas?" he asked me. Just like him make me make all the decision. I rolled my eyes.

"Why not just follow the crowd?" I scrunched my nose up at this it was not a term I liked to use too often. I hated the idea of being a sheep, as my mum put it, of following everyone else. I liked my individuality.

"Sure" he said not noticing my discomfort.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him through the crowd.

"So… where's your mum today?" I held back the urge to laugh at his attempts at conversation. So I smiled up at him instead. And stopped breathing when he smiled back at me. _Gosh he was so gorgeous!_

His smiled turned to confusion and I remembered I hadn't answered him yet.

"Oh… um… well she was walking through town yesterday and run into this lady, well she was more then a lady, a bit slutty if you ask me she wore a tight red top that was way too tight on her and a tiny miniskirt over black tights…" I looked up then to see Aden staring at me amused. "Anyway," I said getting back to the story. "She invited mum to a tour and mum accepted." I shrugged.

I looked up at Aden and saw that he had turned white, like he knew more to the story then he was letting on. "What?" I demanded stopping and staring at him. He said nothing just shook his head, his lips in a tight line.

We were both distracted then, as a woman pushed past us. We both stared after her.

"What the hell?" I murmured.

It was not that she had pushed past us that had grabbed my attention, but the way she was running. She was running in the opposite direction, with a determined and panicked look on her face. She looked like her life depended on wherever she was running, wait no not _her_ life, no, someone else, someone much more important then herself.

I gasped as I saw her jump into the fountain in the middle of the square and run through the water spraying water everywhere, onto the people around it, then she reached the edge and sprang of the board into the crowd.

"Weird." I said as she disappeared from my sight.

Then my attention was brought back, with a loud chime.

"What the hell is that?" I had to yell just to be heard by Aden.

He laughed, "The clock tower." He said amusement written all over his face.

"Why is it so loud?" I yelled again as another toll was heard.

"So we know when its noon." He said laughing now.

"I think we can see the time." I said scowling again.

I knew there was more then one reason why I did not like this area it was so _loud._ Just then, as if everyone heard my thoughts, the sound picked up and the crowd became impossibly thicker. "Cant we go somewhere quieter?" I complained.

"No way, we are just getting to the best part."

I groaned and he smiled.

…

We stood watching the evening parade it was quite elaborate, I had to admit, but still pretty stupid. Full grown adults were walking around with fangs hanging out of the mouth and cloaks tied around there shoulders. I had to laugh. "Oh, come on, you don't actually believe vampires actually go around with fangs and cloaks do you?"

Aden just laughed at me, I had been making comments like this all day. "It's Saint Marcus Day you don't have to believe it April."

"Well I don't believe it" a voice behind us said. I heard Aden snort and I looked around to find a boy no more then 13 years of age looking back at me.

He was quite short and had dark skin and green eyes.

"You don't?" I asked quite surprised.

"No," he said simply.

"Why not?" I asked curiously.

He shrugged "My mum works with vampires." He said.

He said it in such a normal way like he was really saying well my mum works with accountants, for a minute I wasn't even sure if that's what he really meant.

"Yeah," he said carrying on the conversation. "And they certainly don't have fangs."

"They don't?" I asked

"Nop."

"What about the cloaks?"

"Well that part is true, but only to keep out of the sun."

"Because otherwise they turn to dust." I hadn't asked this I was simply stating; I had seen it on Buffy.

He surprised me then by laughing. Can you believe his nerve? He was laughing at me!

"You watch way too much TV" he told me.

I couldn't believe it he was patronizing me. This little stupid no-it-all was patronizing _me_. My anger was rising dangerously and I wished I had fangs.

"What do you propose happens then?" I was having a hard time keeping my voice down and Aden noticed, he had seen me angry before, he grabbed my shoulders and shushed me. I glared up at him in response.

This irritating little boy didn't even seem to notice. "They sparkle" he said, like this was way too obvious.

I had to laugh, and it came out a little hysterical, the image of any one sparkling was outrageous.

"And you mother works for them?" Aden asked, like this little boy was crazy. I was starting to consider the thought myself and this calmed me down considerably.

"Mm hmm" was all he said.

"And what are these vampires like that your mother works for?"

I could tell that Aden was humoring him and I rather enjoyed this. Now who was doing the patronizing?

"Well…" he said and Aden smirked, he saw this and carried on. "Well they are rather pale, way more pale then you." He started pointing at me. I raised my eyebrows. He nodded and carried on. "And they are all really beautiful, no, beyond beautiful, they're perfect."

"They're beautiful?" I asked, my curiosity starting up again.

"Perfect." He corrected me.

"Right well they're perfect."

"Yes, well it's to lure in their prey." My gut dropped at those words, I knew what that meant and I was sure it wasn't just from TV this time. But I was determined not to show it, I did not want to show this boy that his words had any affect on me.

"Anything else?" I asked sweetly.

"Well… they have…" he seemed reluctant to finish it his sentence.

"Go on" I encouraged, not quite sure if I wanted to hear it or not.

"Red eyes…"

"Red eyes?"

"Yes, Red eyes."

My brow wrinkled.

"Why red?" I thought I already knew the answer to that question to.

"The blood." How could this boy be so calm saying this? Why was he not panicking like I was.

"And you mother works for them?" I asked him incredulously.

"Yes, she a receptionist for the Volturi, in that castle right there." He seemed smug as he said this and pointed up to a very ancient and very magnificent castle. I hadn't noticed that we stood near it until now. I wondered how I could have not noticed it was quite a large castle and was casting an even larger shadow that covered us. It looked like it had been there for a few centuries, but still seemed completely intact. It was at least 3 stories high, maybe more, and had a couple of torrents at the very top.

"What does you mother do in this castle?" I asked, I couldn't quite understand what vampires would need receptionists for.

"She helps organize the 'tours', she's quite good with the tourists." He looked around then and so did I, it was the first time I had realized that the crowd had moved on. It was eerily quiet.

"Tours?" I asked, for the first time he looked uncomfortable and this sparked my curiosity again.

He shifted his weight around rather uncomfortably.

"Yes…well…you see…they have to eat sometimes…and they don't like eating the locals…" his voice was a mumble by the end of it. I stared at him my mouth hanging open.

"They eat…"

"Tourists" he finished my sentence.

"And the tourists just agree to this?" my body was shaking now and not from anger.

"Well no…like I said… they umm… lure them in."

I remembered another part of the conversation then, hadn't he said something about luring before?

"With their beauty." I said. He just nodded.

I remember something else now, I certain beauty that I had seen yesterday, a certain beauty that had told us of such tours, a tour which my own mother had agreed to go on.

"April! April!"

Aden was yelling my name, the little boy looked too scared to do much else besides stare, I was vaguely aware that I was on the ground, but I did not remember how I had got there.

"Mum…" was all that was able to come out of my lips, it sounded no more then a sob to me.

Comprehension seemed to dawn on the boy. "Sorry…" was all he said and then he turned and ran.

I was faintly aware the Aden was speaking to me again. He looked helpless then he ran off as well, looking over his shoulder every few minutes, reluctant to leave me.

Then I was on my own, though it didn't matter, I would always be on my own now. I had no mum, I had never had a dad, I had no family, no-one, I was all alone and all I could do was sob.

A little part in the back of my brain was thinking that it was a good thing Aden left, I never liked crying in front of people.

A couple of hours, or maybe a couple of minutes, later I heard a distant noise. I didn't even bother to look up to see what it was. I heard voices, but I wasn't concentrating on what they said. Then sooner then I expected there were 3 very pale faces in front of me. I recognized two of the faces, the only two painful faces that I had seen today. However, they did not look painful anymore. The guy looked happy now and a little bit relieved though still nervous. The girl was shaking almost uncontrollably, and the guy had his arm around her, I wandered if this was why she was shaking, I knew how cold that arm was. Though she was shaking she still looked unbelievably happy.

There was one more girl standing on the other side of the girl. She was very small and as pale as the guy. She looked like a little pixie. I was reminded of Tinkerbell. This girl was the one to speak. I tried to concentrate on her words to stop my sobbing. I did not want these people to see me crying pathetically.

"Edward," she started. "We need to help her, she's going to be very important to Bella," she looked down at me with sympathetic eyes. I saw the other girl look at her with a rather confused expression. "…to all of us." The pixie said.

I looked up at the man, who must have been Edward. He looked at this other girl, seemed to study her, then he nodded. Then he looked down at the girl in his arms, she still looked dreadfully confused, he looked at her with a strange expression in his eyes, which I recognized as love. So this must be Bella. I meant to study Bella to see what was so special about her. But without my permission my eyes drooped and closed.

The last thing I remember is being picked up by the little pixie. I was quite surprised at how much strength she had. Then it was black.


	3. Family ties

Bella's POV

I knew that I should be the happiest person alive right now, I tried and it was working, it wasn't at all hard trying to be happy when I was in Edwards's arms. While he had his cold arm wrapped around my shoulders I doubted anyone in the world could have matched my ecstasy and it became easy to block out the sight of all those people being lead to their end.

However, this happiness didn't last long. It vanished as soon as we walked out the door to that dreadful castle and saw her leaning against the wall, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

She looked like her world was crumbling, and I knew that feeling all to well. She was hunched over clutching at her stomach and I sympathized with her immediately, yes I knew exactly what she was going through. I started to wonder who she had lost, but I didn't have to wait long for an answer long.

Edward started pulling me towards her, following Alice, and I now heard what she was mumbling. In between her heartbroken sobs, she kept repeating the same word over and over. "Mum" was all she managed to get say through her sobs.

She looked completely distraught; her knees were brought up to her clutching hands, her head resting against them. Her blonde hair, or was it red, was tangled and pulled in the wrong direction like she had pulled her hands through it frantically. She was rocking back and forth her hopeless, distressed sobs shaking her tiny frame.

Looking at her was like reliving it myself, certainly I had not looked that truly agonizing.

But I remembered the feeling like my heart had been pulled out and was left hollow inside, no heart, no lungs, no nothing, not even any Bella left inside me.

Reliving it, I could feel the pain again. My breath stopped and I stumbled from the blow. Edwards hand moved from my shoulder to my waist, and I looked up at him. Suddenly all the pieces fell in place again. Which caused another stumble and heart stopping moment when I noticed his hand was on my waist, _my waist. _

That didn't last for long either as he moved his hand back up to my shoulder. Well, it was good while it lasted; I really do have to draw this out as long as possible, before his gone again. I thought about how I would cope with it this time and stopped myself soon after. These were not thoughts that I should be dwelling on now; there were far more important matters at hand.

I looked up at Edward again. He was focusing down on the girl at our feet. We were now standing directly in front of her staring down at her. Edward was looking at her with sympathy in his eyes. I looked down at her to she was still sobbing, but she had quit the rocking. She looked like she was trying to stop that to; she was taking in big gulps of air between sobs, like she was trying to control her breathing. Strange, I thought she was obviously grieving and all she was seemed to be thinking about was breathing; I wondered what she was thinking. I turned to ask Edward, but he was staring intently at Alice. I realized she was speaking and looked at her to focus better on what she was saying.

"We need to help her, she's going to be very important to Bella,"

She couldn't possibly mean me, I didn't even know this girl. She must be mistaken, but Alice was never mistaken. Except once I shuddered as I remembered why we were currently standing in the middle of Italy.

"…to all of us." She finished. I felt Edward nod besides me. I realized Alice was still looking down at this girl; she had more then just sympathy in her eyes.

I looked down at her to, and saw that she was staring back at us. Her face was withdrawn, as if she was only half paying attention to the scene in front of us. She was fairly plain, but also oddly beautiful. Even with tears streaming down her cheeks I marveled at her uniqueness, I had never seen anyone like her in my life.

She had a line nose and full lips, but I didn't spend time dwelling on that it was her eyes which drew me in. They were the brightest blue I had ever seen like a clear ocean on a very calm day. Even with her eyes red and puffy, from crying, they still stood out from face. They were brimming with more tears, which were threatening to break from the surface. She looked like a little kid, or an adorable puppy. I knew at once that Alice was right, she would be very important to me.

She looked up and saw me and Edward. Once she took us in, I saw another emotion flicker across her eyes, joy it looked like. How could she be feeling joy when she was so obviously suffering? It must have been something she had seen between me and Edward; I wondered how we looked on the outside. I smiled; it must be pretty good to make this distraught girl happy.

It seemed like such a mature thing to do, acknowledge someone else's happiness, when she, so obviously, felt none. I studied her more closely; she could not have been older then 16 years of age, although she looked as though, if she were to try, she could pull of maybe 18.

She managed to look both mature and yet still young at the same time. Her features were almost childish, her tiny body, her small face, and who could forget those large, blue eyes.

She seemed as if she was trying to look more closely at me, but she soon lost the battle with her drooping eyelids.

As her eyes finally closed, her eyelashes fanned across her cheeks, definitely childlike. But still mature.

As Alice silently picked her up I tried to figure out what it was, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I eventually gave up, feeling the lethargic catch up with me. I stumbled a bit more and Edward gave up trying to hold me up, he picked me up.

Now I definitely didn't want to sleep, this was too good I had to take in every single minute, before it was gone.

"Sleep Bella," Edward spoke softly.

My eyes drooped, but I fought against them. I shook my head.

Edward just chuckled and turned to Alice.

"Can we save her?"

"No, it's too late."

I felt Edward cringe as he saw Alice's 'visions'. I looked across at the innocent girl Alice was holding in her arms, and felt a pang of pain. It's too late. What did that mean? Was she going to die? How was she going to be important to me dead?

"Well that just leaves this one," Edward asked, gesturing down at the girl. "What do we do for her?"

I felt a wave of relief wash over me, so it this girl was not in trouble. Who then? Relief soon turned to annoyance. What were they talking about?

"I don't know it was a long time ago I lost my mum."

I held my laughter back. It was strange to hear those words out of Alice's mouth. My annoyance turned to sympathy and I understood why Alice was looking at her like that. So she lost her mum, that was bad, that was past bad that was past any rational thought. I thought about losing Renee and couldn't even begin to comprehend it. No, that was a situation I was not willing to think about.

"I think we should call Carlisle."

Alice just nodded her thoughts far away, into the future world, and threw him her phone.

Edward shifted me freeing up his left hand, so he could catch the phone more easily. He had it turned on and ringing before I had blinked twice.

"Carlisle?" he paused.

"No, no, everythings fine, we just have a complication." I assumed Carlisle answered something along the lines of "A complicated? What kind?" because Edward answered with, "Well… we found a girl" a pause, as Carlisle answered him.

"We're not sure," I guessed Carlisle was seeking a better explanation then that because Edward proceeded to tell Carlisle the story. My eyes started drooping again, and again I fought to open them. I was struggling so much with my pointless battle that I only heard snatches of the explanation. "…she was outside the Volturi castle…Alice saw an connection between them…she's all alone…her mum took the tour…"

I silently chuckled at those words, well that was certainly a new way to describe going to Heaven. I chuckled again as I finally admitted defeat and closed my eyes.

I have to admit we must have looked like quite suspicious walking out the gates, two pale white, frightening people carrying two sleeping girls.

…

I woke up to Edward shaking me gently, "We're nearly about to land." He said softly; when he saw that I was awake. I looked around groggily and realized we were on a plane.

I struggled to remember what had happened I vaguely remembered being woken up at the airport by Edward. So that must mean Edward was alive. I figured that was the most important thing, the rest could wait.

I went to turn to Edward grinning, when I realized a strange weight on my shoulder, it felt like someone's head, it couldn't have been Alice unless Alice was suddenly not a vampire.

I turned my head to investigate and saw a pile of hair on my shoulder; it was a very strange colour, kind of like someone had tried to die red hair blonde. I wondered who this could possibly belong to. I thought maybe I had seen it somewhere before, but couldn't think where.

I looked up at Edward again, hoping he would explain, he just chuckled. He leaned over me putting a hand on the person shaking it gently. I felt the weight lift of my shoulder and turned back to the source of my confusion. Suddenly I was staring into big orbs of blue.

Suddenly it all came rushing back, Edward, the Volturi and this strange girl sitting next to me. "Oh." Was all I could say. I didn't think my mouth could manage much more my mind was in turmoil, questions floating in and out of it so fast that I didn't get a chance to grasp any of them. The interior of the plane started spinning and I thought for a wild moment that the plane was going to crash. Edward placed his hand on my shoulder. I realized my breath was coming out in sharp gasps.

A startled look came over the girl, mixed with a little fear.

"Oh gosh…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, your shoulder must have been pretty comfortable." She attempted a laugh then. "So sorry, please calm down."

I couldn't believe it this girl was actually trying to calm me down? Wasn't she the one that should need calming down? Why was she not crying and hyperventilating like me?

Though I realized that I actually had calmed down some what, it must have been from my disbelief.

"Are you alright?" she asked, looking at me with worried eyes.

It was then that I noticed what a nice voice she had. It wasn't the sing-song voice that Alice had, or the velvety one of Edward. It was a soft voice yet still rung with emotion.

"Are you?"

I asked. I didn't ask the direct question, but she still understood the meaning behind it.

"Good, well not exactly well yet, but getting better. I mean it took me awhile to come back to reality, but Alice was there when I did. I reckon I still would be someone up in space if she wasn't there. I know my mum would want be back on Earth safe and happy again. I know it's not going to happen straight away, but it's important to stay positive."

She finished this with a nod of her head.

I wasn't used to someone rambling so much, but I found that I didn't mind. There was something comforting about her voice, calming almost.

She looked at me as if waiting for me to say something, I was still in shock the last time I had seen her she was in a distraught state and yet now she was rambling on like she couldn't stop talking.

She gave me another worried look and turned to Edward.

"Are we nearly there?"

Edward nodded at her, she seemed satisfied with this and turned to Alice, who I now noticed was sitting next to her and started up a conversation, about the fashion in Italy.

"Certainly talkative, isn't she?" Edward whispered in my ear. I nodded.

"What exactly did Alice say to her? Did she give her anything?"

Edward chuckled again, "No, she simply explained the situation, of course leaving out all the gory bits, and told her what she saw happening and said that no matter what she knew that we would all be there for her."

"Does she know?"

"Yes, I believe so, although she didn't quite take it as well as you."

"So she believed the stories about you being all fangs and capes?"

"No, she knew the real story. It seemed the receptionist had a son, who hadn't wasn't really following the whole keep it a secret thing."

I remembered that receptionist, yes she seemed like the type who would run home and tell all her friends.

"So she was scared of you?"

I smiled then; at least Edward got the reaction he was looking for, for once.

However, Edward shook his head.

"She was angry at us"

"Angry?"

"Well livid seems like a better explanation, she was screaming and yelling at us and tried to lunge at us a few times, it took a lot of effort to calm her down without the whole airport thinking we had committed a murder."

I was perplexed, angry did not seem like a normal emotion to vampires. Vampires you were supposed to be scared of, vampires you were supposed to run away from.

"She didn't run and scream?"

Edward smirked, "Well it's not the first time it's happened."

"But, she was angry?"

"Absolutely murderous"

"Why the hell would you be angry at a vampire?"

Edward looked at me with a strange expression, he seemed like he was in pain, like he had said too much. He obviously thought that I knew this.

I tried hard to think of reasoned to be angry at a vampire, but I could only think of one time I had been. It seemed like such a long time ago but I still managed to remember the feeling of dread and hatred that had passed through when I had thought that James had my mum.

I gasped and looked at Edward, his eyes were black that they had been before; I could see no trace of red.

I looked over at the confusing girl talking animatedly with Alice, she looked back at me and smile. Suddenly it all fit together the angry, the tour, why Edward face was scrunched up in such anguished.

I had seen that face before, of course it wasn't the same face but, I could see the red hair, blue eyed beauty that was walking around the Volturi castle, completely unaware of why she was there.

This time I did more then gasped I stopped breathing altogether and everything was black again.

…

"Bella! Bella!"

Edward sounded panicky.

"Don't worry she will be fine,"

"Are you sure?" I knew that he would have received a very dirty look from Alice then.

"Yes, of course im sure Edward, watch she's going to open her eyes."

I lay there for a minute more, before I remember what happened. I opened my eyes from the shock, at least I kept breathing this time.

"Oh, Bella." Edward was sitting besides me; I was lying down on 3 seats. I looked around and couldn't see anyone else.

"Have we landed already?" I started to panic again what if we don't get off? I sat up quickly and my head started spinning.

"Wow, not to fast," Edward had his hand on my arm steadying me. "What happened Bella?"

I felt embarrassed then; I mean who forgets to breath? I decided there was no point in lying though.

"I guess I forgot to breath" I said softly avoiding eye contact.

Edward actually laughed at that; I stared, well more like glared at him.

"And I thought only I had that affect on you."

I felt my face heat up and looked away again.

I noticed a pair of blue eyes staring at me; I suddenly didn't know what to say to her, I didn't even know the name of this poor girl. She looked at me for awhile, and then she smiled and said, "Im April,"

"April?" it was not unusual, but not a common name either, it suited her.

"Well, yeah my mum wasn't very original; I was born on April 10th, but I guess my mum wasn't really paying attention to baby names she had her mind on other things." She shrugged after she finished this little speech, she certainly did like talking.

"It's nice," I said, I didn't know what else to say.

"Thank you, Bella"

That took me by surprise, how did she know my name? I was sure I hadn't told her.

She saw my expression, "These two don't stop talking about you," she said then she laughed.

I looked back at Edward and Alice, they were both laughing to, apparently my expression was quite comical.

I listened to all the different laughter, Edward chuckling, Alice tinkling and April giggling. I decided I loved all of these sounds; I would have to think of some new jokes.

"Are you guys planning on actually getting of the plane?"

I jumped at Emmett's booming voice, causing more laughter. Maybe being myself was enough; it certainly got these three going.

Ten minutes later when April had time to calm down, after we found out she rather enjoys laughing, we finally stepped out of security at Atlanta airport.

The whole family was waiting Emmett was bouncing around, obviously happy, Rosalie was standing next to him looking uncomfortable. I looked around for Jasper and realized he was already standing besides Alice; they were standing in front of one another looking into each others eyes, I felt that it was a private moment and averted my eyes looking at Esme and Carlisle instead. They both looked terribly anxious, but as soon as they saw us, they seemed to calm down.

Esme run up to us and throwing her arms around Edward looking like, if it were possible, she would have tears in her eyes.

"You will _never_ put me through that again," it sounded strange to hear Esme growl.

"Sorry, mum" Edward said grinning.

She let go of him and turned to hug me instead.

"Thank you so much, Bella."

"Yes we owe you." I looked up and saw that Carlisle was had made his way over.

"No you don't," I mumbled through Esme's arms. She still made no attempt to let go.

"Esme," Edward said. "Please let Bella breath, she's been through enough."  
Esme immediately let go and went to stand beside her husband, though she still looked at me happily. I turned to look at Carlisle who was staring at Edward; I had a suspicion that he was communicating in a different way, and by the look on his face it seemed to be a warning.

I moved my head to look at Edward, sure enough I saw the he was stiff his eyes almost burning in their sockets, I turned to see who was receiving such harsh daggers and saw Rosalie.

I looked around desperately trying to find a distraction before he could say or do anything; I really didn't think the family would forgive me if their sister was in pieces.

I turned to Carlisle for help, but he still seemed to be calming Edward down and, from the feel of Edwards arm that was still around me, it was not helping.

I searched through the airport instead and found what I was looking for a tiny frame girl, standing slightly to the side of this strange reunion. She didn't look awkward or scared; she was watching it all with amusement and a slight sadness.

I shrugged away from Edward, but he still didn't take his eyes of Rosalie. I looked at her, she looked extremely scared, but was obviously still trying to convince Edward of her repentance. She was hidden slightly behind Emmett, who looked torn.

I walked over to April, she grinned when she saw me coming. No-one else seemed to see me, except Alice, who was encouraging me, and Esme who was giving me a quizzical look. Every one else was still either trying to calm Edward down, or getting ready to fight, Jasper looked like he was having quite a problem.

I eventually reached April.

"Ready?" I asked her not knowing what else to say.

She nodded enthusiastically.

I felt a numb ache I couldn't believe that this girl, who had lost her mum less then 24 hours ago, could be so happy about meeting another family. Whatever Alice had seen was obviously good. Although I still wondered if she was really okay. Then I remembered there was a doctor present.

"Carlisle," I called out, hoping the tension had been lowered somewhat.

"Could you please, do a check up on April?"

Before I knew it Carlisle was by my side.

"So this is the notorious April is it?" He smiled down at April, she nodded again.

"Well I would be more then happy to oblige."

"I don't think I'm hurt, I mean I haven't hit my head or anything, im sure im fine. I don't want to waste your time."

I was shocked, she thought she was fine? Well I guess she's worse of then I thought. Carlisle just chuckled.

"No time wasted at all, dear. It might be a bit uncomfortable in the middle of an airport to do a full check up, but I would like to check for any bruising or cuts, just in case. If you don't mind,"

She just shrugged, she obviously knew she had little choice; it was very hard to resist a Cullen.

He led her over to the chairs seated in the middle of the airport. I took this opportunity to look around, not wanting to chance the case of Edward still wanting to rip Rosalie's head of. It was the first time I had looked around since we got off the plane, there seemed to be no one around besides us and the odd security or receptionist roaming around. I wondered what time it was looking for the door or some windows, it looked like the sun was setting, must have been about twilight.

I took a deep breath and turned around Edward, Rosalie and Emmett were still in the same position everyone else was gathered around April and Carlisle, except Jasper who seemed to be standing in between the two groups, obviously tossing up if he would be any use.

I decided to help him out with the Edward situation so I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder I saw that his face was twisted up in emotion he seemed to be struggling, contemplating his options.

"Please Edward," I spoke softly and I felt him stiffen less. "She didn't know, she only wanted you safe."

He sighed and then turned to me.

"You're honestly willing to forgive her?" I looked over his shoulder at Rosalie and saw her face, she was still standing behind Emmett, and she looked as if she was sorry.

As much as I knew Rosalie disliked me I could not bring myself to let such hostility into this family, I had no wish to divide this family any more. I knew that he loved her and even as much as he hated her now, I knew that he would regret it later.

"Yes, yes I am Edward."

He sighed again and pulled me in for a hug.

"This family does not deserve you Bella." He spoke into my hair.

He kissed me on the top of my head and I closed my eyes. I knew I didn't want this moment to end, but sooner then I thought necessary he was pulling me over to the patient.

Carlisle was asking if she hurt anywhere, running his fingers over the skin on her head.

"Can you tell me what the date is?"

She sighed, "I don't see how that's relevant,"

I could see that Carlisle was trying not to smile at his stubborn patient.

"Well I am the doctor here, so could you please try to co-operate?"

April nodded reluctantly.

"Okay, so the date?"

"20th of March."

He nodded once.

"Your birthday?"

"10th of April."

Carlisle actually did smile this time, then continued with the questioning.

"Your full name?"

"You do realize that I could be lying right?"

Carlisle actually laughed at this.

"I doubt that with charming Edward here,"

April rolled her eyes; I wondered how much Edward and Alice really had told her.

"Actually it doesn't work on her either."

I turned to look at Edward and I wasn't the only one, everyone else did too except Alice and April. Edward just smiled and looked down at me. I was too shocked to speak, Alice was also smiling.

I wondered what the inside joke was that I was missing out on, that the rest of the family was missing out on.

"What is it?" Jasper spoke, but he was speaking to Alice.

"You'll see," She chirped in response.

Emmett groaned, he hated the suspense almost as much as I did.

"Don't worry its good." Alice promised.

"Carry on," everyone was still stunned for a minute, and then Carlisle spoke.

"Your name?" he repeated.

"April," Alice laughed

"Your full name?" he corrected.

"April Chloe Swan." She replied confidently.

I hadn't really been listening up I was still staring at Edward, the shock still not worn of from the whole not being able to read Aprils mind incident. I certainly heard that though as clear as a bell. The rest of the Cullens gasped. My mind went into overdrive.

She was a Swan; surely I would have recognized her. I was sure there weren't too many Swans roaming around. I tried to think of Charlie mentioning anyone going to Italy recently and came up with nothing.

"Are you sure?" I asked, turning my attention towards April now.

"Umm, yes im fairly sure of my name." she replied. Alice tried not to laugh.

"Do you know who your father is?" This time Alice did laugh. I turned to glare at her.

"Yes, im sure you do Bella," Edward spoke from behind me I turned to see him holding in laughter as well.

I turned back to Alice she seemed just as clueless as me.

"Who is it?" I asked trying not to sound annoyed at the inappropriate behavior.

"Chief Charlie Swan," She said without hesitation.

"No way," I heard Emmett say behind me.

"Does he know?" Esme wondered aloud.

"No, mum never told him," April replied to Esme, now she looked frustrated.

"Would someone care to share?"


	4. Families, Differences and speed freaks

Edwards POV

I just had to laugh at everyone's expressions, it was quite priceless. I expected most of them, Emmett laughing and cracking jokes, Carlisle surprise, Esme's concern, Jasper cringing at the range of emotions sent his way, Alice, of course, already knew. I didn't even look to check Rosalie's reaction, I had just gotten over wanting to kill her and I wanted to keep it that way for the moment.

I tried to forget about the last few minutes, as I still felt the anger and didn't want to do anything I would regret. However, I could not block out the memory of everyone's thoughts that had filled my head at once. Emmett and Rosalie were both screaming at me, Rosalie an apology, Emmett a warning. It was lucky that I had that to distract me from my own thoughts, It was also lucky that I could hear Carlisle's calm 'voice' telling me how much I would regret it. These distractions had given me a moment's hesitation, before Bella had calmed me down. I knew had that not been the case would have been playing out a very different scene right now.

I felt a slight weight against me and was brought back to reality. This was something I didn't expect. Bella had fainted yet again. I sighed, I didn't think she had it in her anymore, apparently I was wrong.

I picked her up and laid her on a blanket covering the airport seats, April moved to give me room.

I turned to April and saw that she was still extremely confused. I figured I should probably explain.

"April, it seems Alice was right, you have found a family today."

She still seemed confused, "Well yes," she said staring at Alice, "I knew that I would be important, Alice said you would all accept me, like family."

Esme smiled sweetly, "That's not exactly what he means darling."

April looked even more confused now.

"I mean blood related," I explained.

Her face lit up at this.

"You mean I'm related to Bella?"

I nodded, she got even more excited. She was practically bouncing in her seat. Then she stopped and looked at Bella worried.

"Why did Bella faint? Does she not like me? Is she sad that I'm in her family?"

I laughed; I couldn't believe that Bella would not want this excited girl in her family. I already knew that she did I had seen the vision of them two, they were only hugging, but you could see the love in both of their eyes.

"I assure you Bella will love you, it was just a bit of a shock that's all."

"Oh," she said, then her face dropped and she looked even more anxious, "His not…"

I could hear the hurt in her voice; she didn't need to finish for me to know what she meant. "No, I assure you he is fully alive and well, I expect Bella wouldn't be very happy if he weren't."

She looked up at me now and I saw the sadness seep out of her face.

"So him and Bella are close?"

"Yes…" I said slowly, I had no idea where she was going with this and I wished that I could read her mind. I felt the annoyance I regularly felt with the other Swan sister, I still couldn't believe there was another one, and this was going to be very irritating indeed.

"Exactly how are I and Bella related?"

I paused for a second, I thought I had told her this or I just expected her too. Everyone else already knew this and I expected that April had been told about having a sister, apparently this wasn't so.

I guess I took too long to answer because Carlisle did instead.

"You and Bella are sisters,"

I waited for her to faint like her sister, but she had a very different reaction. Hers was closer to Emmett's.

"No way!" she squealed.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Alice gushed and ran to hug April.

They were both jumping up and down and talking about plans, when Bella decided to come around. She sat up slowly, I went to sit by her side, but was nearly run over by two very tiny girls.

I saw Bella shoot a very scared look at me and then I saw her no more as she was a mass of limbs and hair.

Alice and April were still talking in very high pitched voices and Bella was groaning.

Everyone else was in stitches. Emmett was even rolling around on the ground. I was still standing there shocked; I decided I should save Bella, before she got flattened.

I rushed over and saw that they were struggling to get up. I grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her out of the mess. She smiled at me appreciately, her face was red.

I laughed, "Quite excited to have a new sister aren't they?"

"That was just because of me?" she asked her ears getting red now.

I just nodded and pulled her in for a hug she pushed her face into my chest, wanting to hide.

"Are you alright with this?"

"With the whole finding out I have a sister thing, I guess so I mean I can't complain can I? However the getting tackled to the ground, I don't think I could get used to."

April and Alice joined in the laughter with everyone else now.

I noticed Bella wasn't too happy about being the centre of attention so I turned to Carlisle.

"What do we do now?"

April stopped laughing and looked like she was going to tackle someone again, the enthusiasm radiating of her. I instinctively held Bella closer.

"Do I get to meet him?"

"I don't know if that will be the best idea April." Carlisle said soothingly.

April pouted. "Why not?"

"Well, Bella is already in a fair bit of trouble with him you see, fathers don't generally agree with their daughters skipping schools for three days and disappearing without an explanation, I don't think it would help with the situation if she turns up with a daughter he never knew about."

April seemed to think of this for a while, her brow was crinkled in concentration, and it was quite cute. Again I felt the need to love and protect her; this time I knew what it was definitely sisterly love. It was more then I felt for Alice, not that I didn't love Alice I certainly did. It was just that I knew Alice could look after herself; April was another breakable human that I felt I had to protect. She seemed so innocent and little, definitely something that needed looking after.

"Well," She began, "It could soften him up?" She said hopefully, though it sounded more like a question. We all looked to Alice to settle it. She immediately took on that far away look and I zoned in on her thoughts. They was a mist of different images, some including Bella, others April and finally saw a scene playing out with Charlie. I shuddered and Bella looked up at me I just shook my head. This was something she did not need to see.

"That would not be the best idea, sorry April. Charlie is already on the verge of a nervous breakdown."

April didn't look happy, but didn't argue the point further. She was already beginning to see that it was useless.

"So where does that leave April then?" I asked Carlisle.

April looked up worried yet again. It was like she thought we would just leave her here, though I knew this to be impossible. I was sure that the rest of the family had felt the connection as well; she was part of the family just as much as Bella.

"I guess we are going to need a bed in the house after all." Carlisle said smiling down at April. Her face immediately lit up.

"Oh, that sounds great!" Alice squealed. We all laughed, we knew Alice was already past this conversation. It seemed that April was unlike her newly found sister in many ways.

"We will have to go as soon as we get home." April said nodding.

"Much sooner then that," Alice replied horrified.

Bella looked up at me confused. "What exactly are they talking about?" She sounded suspicious; I guessed she already knew the answer.

"Shopping," I said smiling. Bella groaned.

April looked down at herself; she had a white button down shirt on, denim jeans tight around her legs and a red ribbon in her hear. I saw Alice's point; she was certainly going to freeze in Forks.

Carlisle spoke up then, before Alice or April could start again.

"I think we should get going then, we've kept Charlie waiting long enough."

So we all made our way out to the cars. I saw that they were Rosalie's and Carlisle's. I immediately made my way to Carlisle's car, dragging Bella and April along with me. I did not need to be stuck in a car with Rose; it would do neither of us any good.

"Immature," She whispered under her breath.

I saw Esme give her a disapproving look from the corner of my eye.

We all got into the car, me in the middle of the back with April and Bella on either side. Carlisle drove with Esme in the passenger seat.

Carlisle didn't like driving as fast as the rest of us but, since he wanted to keep up with the rest of his family and also wanted to get back pretty quickly, he was driving fairly fast today.

Bella was purposefully not looking out the window but at me instead, personally I didn't mind I could look at her all day and it wouldn't be enough I was just glad that she seemed to have the same thoughts.

April, however, had her window down and seemed to be quite enjoying the speed.

"I can't wait until I can drive!" she exclaimed suddenly.

I was quite surprised at this I figured she was at least 16 it seemed strange she didn't have her license yet.

"You don't have one yet?" I asked wondering if where she came from had different age limits.

"No, I don't turn sixteen until next month." I raised my eyebrows, she was only still fifteen, she looked like she could pass for seventeen with a bit of makeup.

An evil grin spread on her face. "You just wait until im on the road."

I laughed; she was certainly the opposite of Bella.

Bella groaned, "Not another one" she said desperately.

"What do you mean?" April looked interested.

Now it was my turn to smile evilly, "You haven't seen me driving yet."

She looked excited, "Are you good?"

Before I could answer Bella cut in, "His just plain scary!"

I grinned at Bella. "So I finally scare you?"

Bella grinned too now, "Only behind the wheel."

I knew she was only playing around, but I still felt the dark feeling set over me. When was she going to realize that she should be running and screaming?

"Can you teach me how to drive Edward?"

"No!" Bella and Esme had both spoken up this time. This annoyed me; I was perfectly capable of teaching someone to drive.

"Why not?"

"What's wrong with that?"

April and I had both yelled at the same time. Carlisle chuckled.

"I would much rather Carlisle teach you, I think it would be best to be taught the correct rules of the road first, and not what Emmett likes to call 'the Cullen's rule book'."

"Meaning im not allowed to speed?"

"Certainly not!"

I had a sudden flash of this small, wide eyed girl sitting next to me attempting to speed. I agreed with Esme, that was not a good idea.

"Well, im sure Edward knows the actual rules as well."

Esme hesitated she looked at me, then sighed

"My children have been known to have quite a temper," she said sadly.

April looked up and me, I was still quite pissed. She raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything further.

The car was quiet after that, Bella and April soon fell asleep. The heads on each of my shoulders, I wondered how they could sleep with such a hard pillow.


	5. New beginnings

My head was stuck out the window, yet again, after I had had a quite peaceful sleep. I knew this was the best day of my life. I was being accepted into this, very strange, family.

At first I was not at all sure of them, actually that's understated it a lot I had actually tried to fight them. What did they expect? I had been told that my mother had died at the hands of a vampire and wake up to find that out of the three people I trusted two of them were vampires, that doesn't sound right does it?

So I thought it was quite in my right to take revenge out on these two, little did I know just how much that hurt. They had held me of for quite a while, I figured I had a better chance at the pixie so I ran at her first, of course Edward just picked me up while I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted. He eventually put me down when he had realized this; though I didn't give up I turned and aimed a kick right at his crouch.

Boy did that hurt. The two concerned vampires immediately rushed over to me, I was still clutching my sprained ankle and yelling out many profanities. I calmed down after that, I guess I figured if they had their chance while I was down and they hadn't down anything about it, either that or I was just too exhausted to argue with them to argue about being led towards a plane.

I can't really remember much more besides that, that night. I was still fuming about my hurting ankle. The thing that made up my mind about them was after about an hour on the plane, when my ankle started throbbing less, I had turned to glare at Edward once more. Bella was sitting right next to me though and I had to lean across her, she was still asleep, the adoration and love I saw in Edwards eyes definitely made me reconsider my thoughts on vampires.

Then I really did want to know all about them. I turned back to Alice; her face was excited, like she was expecting me to change my mind.

"You've changed your mind." She didn't ask it she stated it, like she already knew so I started with this.

"How did you know that?"

She shrugged a smile creeping on her features.

"I can see the future."

"You can see the future?" I asked incredulously, I was expecting something about extra vampire senses or something along those lines, definitely not this.

Alice was nodding her head, it looked like it was about to come off, she was obviously excited.

"How exactly does that work?" I said slowly.

So this set Alice of into a long explanation of vampires and their abilities apparently Edward could read minds and someone called Jasper, that she seemed very happy to talk about, could read and control emotions. She finished by telling me she only saw the outcomes of peoples decisions, and it could change at any time.

This got me curious, "What do you see in my future?"

She smiled at this, "I see you as part of a family"

This confused me I could not see how I was part of any family at the moment, I was still on the verge of another break down, I had no mother anymore she was gone and I doubted she found my father so I could see no way around her statement.

I looked up at Alice and saw a smile spread wide across her face, I thought I understood. "Yours?" I asked.

She smiled wider, if that was possible. "In a way, yes."

I didn't know how true her statement was then, I only figured they would adopt me or such. I had a slight fear they would turn me into one of them. I did not expect what waited for me at Seattle airport.

When I saw Edward, glaring at Rosalie and crouching in position ready to pounce, I damn nearly had a heart attack. I did not want to be anywhere near where a vampire fight might occur, I had not seen one before but, judging by the looks of them, it was something I did not want to see.

I looked to Alice for help, since she was the only other vampire I knew at this stage. She was anxious, but her face soon smoothed out and I felt a wave of calm spread across me. I had a suspicion that this was due to the Jasper I had heard about. I looked around accusingly and saw, what must have been, him standing with an arm around Alice. I had no doubt that this was the Jasper that Alice had been gushing about on the plane. He had short honey blond hair and was very tall and lean, just as Alice had described. I could see from the way he held Alice, that the love she had described to me was mutual.

I tried to glare at him for a few minutes. I didn't like the fact that these vampires had so much control over me, besides the fact that it was unnerving; I was a very independent person and liked to control myself.

After decided that it was useless, I couldn't glare when I felt so calm, I looked around at the various vampires.

I saw who must have been Rosalie; I was guessing by the fact that that was who Edwards daggers were aimed at.

She was extremely beautiful, even when she was scared for her life. Her perfect features were pulled into a mask of great concern; her blonde waves were covering her face.

I could only make out half of her though, as she was being hidden behind what I first thought to be a boulder. However, as I saw that the boulder had curls and dimples, I concluded that this was Emmett. The playful bear, as described by Alice.

He still looked extremely scary, his mouth was pulled back over his teeth and a growl was coming from his chest. I realized that Jasper gift was only working on three people. I looked over at him; he seemed very annoyed and was rubbing his temples.

My eyes drifted back to Edward, and saw that a calm, blonde man and a very anxious, short women standing in front of him.

I figured that this was Carlisle and Esme. I could see the compassion and love written all over their features.

If I wasn't so scared I would probably find this very amusing this was just like a real family, a mum and a dad trying to settle a dispute between their children. I soon realized that I did indeed feel a slight smile touch my lips; I guessed that this was due to Jasper.

I saw Bella looking around frantically; I wondered what she was looking for. Then her eyes landed on me and she moved away from Edward towards me.

She glanced back a few times; I figured she was checking Edward hadn't committed murder yet.

She finally reached me and seemed lost for words. "Ready?" she eventually said.

Was I ready to meet these strange people? Definitely, I thought. I nodded a bit too fast causing a head spin.

She looked at me concerned, seemed to be wondering what to do next.

"Carlisle," She called, she obviously thought it best to start with him, everyone else was preoccupied.

"Could you please, do a check up on April?" my eyes nearly bulged out of my head, I certainly did not need a check up I was completely fine.

I was so horrified I didn't even notice that Carlisle had made his way over to us.

"So this is the notorious April is it?" he said smiling down at me.

I just nodded, still recovering. "Well I would be more then happy to oblige."

Before I knew it I was trying to get out of it.

"I don't think I'm hurt, I mean I haven't hit my head or anything, I'm sure I'm fine. I don't want to waste your time."

Bella looked even more worried at this, like I had actually hit my head. I didn't remember bumping my head, but my ankle was a different story.

Carlisle chuckled. "No time wasted at all, dear. It might be a bit uncomfortable in the middle of an airport to do a full check up, but I would like to check for any bruising or cuts, just in case. If you don't mind,"

I sighed inwardly and shrugged, by the looks on their faces I wasn't getting out of this.

So I followed Carlisle over to the very uncomfortable looking chairs.

He immediately started feeling different limbs, making sure nothing was broken. When he got to my ankle he looked up questioningly, "You can blame Edward for that," I said.

He looked worried, and since I didn't want Edward in trouble I explained some more,

"Apparently it is a very bad idea to kick a vampire." He chuckled again, he obviously found me very amusing, I didn't mind at all I liked people laughing.

Alice and Esme seemed to be the only other people standing with me, Esme was looking down at me with worry on her face, and I smiled at her hoping she would see that I was alright. Alice simply looked excited about something, I couldn't tell what. I was still looking at Alice trying to depict why she was almost jumping around, so I didn't notice when the others walk over here.

Edward looked like he had calmed down a bit so everyone else seemed at ease to, except Rosalie who kept shooting glances at him waiting for the onslaught.

Then Carlisle started asking question, which I found very irrelevant. I told him this, but he turned the whole 'im the doctor' thing around on me, so I obliged. However, I couldn't bite back my retort when he asked me my name.

"You do realize I could be lying right?" I asked him innocently.

He laughed at this; I personally couldn't see the humour.

"I doubt that with charming Edward here." He told me, that almost made me laugh. I rolled my eyes instead I already knew that it didn't matter, Edward couldn't get into my mind. I was quite proud of this.

I didn't expect the shock form the rest of the family. I didn't find this uncommon, what I did find uncommon was the fact that he had the ability in the first placed.

So I was shocked that everyone, except me and Alice, turned towards Edward with their mouths hanging open.

Jasper asked Alice what the problem was and she just grinned telling him, and the rest of us, to wait and see.

Carlisle repeated his question and I answered.

"April," I said. Alice laughed, I glared up at her.

"Your full name?" Carlisle corrected himself.

Well that was easy, of course I knew my name, I didn't see what he would achieve through this.

"April Chloe Swan." I said it was a pretty easy name to remember, the month I was born in, my mums name and my dads' last name.

I heard a collective gasp around me, all the Cullens seemed to be very happy and surprised at the same time.

Bella looked as if she were trying to remember something.

"Are you sure?" She whispered confusing me. Was she seriously that worried about me that she thought I had my name wrong? No one else seemed concerned.

"Umm, yes im fairly sure of my name." Alice mouth was pulled into a tight line.

"Do I know your father?" This shocked me, why would she know my father, I didn't even know him.

"Yes, im sure you do Bella" Edward said holding in the laughter, that now spilled from Alice.

Bella looked to me for an explanation but I feeling exactly how she looked, confused.

"Who is it?" she finally whispered.

I didn't even need to think of this, my mum had been telling me the story my whole life.

"Chief Charlie Swan," I said.

Bella looked quite sick.

"No way!" boomed Emmett; he was excited about all this drama. Drama I didn't know about obviously, as I was still clueless.

"Does he know?" Esme asked, worry on her sweet face.

I told her what had been drilled into me from an early age, _he doesn't know, so we cant just turn up one day April, how do you think that will go?_

"No, mum never told him," I said truthfully.

Then I turned back to Bella and saw her swaying slightly.

"Would someone to tell me why Bella looks like she's going to faint?" I asked frustrated as to why no one had told.

From there my emotions slipped from worry to happiness, so quickly I was afraid of whiplash, as I got told about the sister I never knew I had.

…

Now as I sat in the car, the wind whipping my face I smiled at my new found treasure, and a treasure she truly was. She looked so peaceful, yet determined as she slept on Edwards' shoulder, that I wondered yet again about the dad I never knew.

"How completely set is everyone about the whole me Charlie not meeting me thing?" I asked Edward.

He looked exasperated, as he answered.

"We are not changing our minds, April"

I guess he was right to feel this way, it wasn't the first time I had asked this since I had woken up.

It still was completely unfair though. Why should he not know about me?

"April, please he has enough on his plate."

"I could help with that,"

"Trust me, it would not help matters." He said getting quite mad now.

I opened my mouth, but he cut me of.

"Think of Bella," he said desperately.

He has a point; Bella didn't need to deal with that. I was about to give up again, when I had a brilliant idea.

"What if he didn't need to know about me being his daughter?"

Edward looked hesitant.

"What do you mean?" He asked carefully.

"Well what if I could just meet him, as say Bellas' father?"

He thought about this carefully,

"Well that could work," he said carefully,

"You could just be Bellas' friend or something."

"Yes, that would be great." I said excitedly. At least then I could see what he was like.

"Let's talk to Alice about it first though," He said, seeing my excitement as a bad sign.

I just nodded; I already knew that it would work.

I soon got my opportunity to ask Alice's' opinion, as we pulled up in front of a rather large mall.

I didn't even get time to stare at it for long, as Alice and Rosalie were standing at my door pulling it opened.

They both looked quite excited and I could tell this was going to be fun.

"Come on," Alice told me, pulling me towards the entrance.

"Be quick," Carlisle yelled over.  
I don't think either of them heard, but Carlisle seemed satisfied.

Before I knew it we were in front of a large clothing store, it was then that I realized I didn't have any money.

I pulled back a little bit and Alice turned back to me.

"What?" she demanded.

"I…I don't have any money." I said embarrassed.

Both girls laughed.

"That isn't a problem, when you're a Cullen," Rosalie said smiling,

"and since you're officially a Cullen, there is no need to worry." Alice finished.

I laughed to then; we had decided the perfect cover story, being that I was another adoption to the Cullen family. It was definitely funny, there was no resemblance whatsoever between me and the rest of them, besides the very pale skin.

"Ok then," I said smiling, "Let the shopping begin."

They both took that as their opportunity and rushed into the shop grabbing clothes of racks and adding them to the piles in their arms. I was surprise at how quickly the piles built up. I had always considered myself quite a shopaholic, but I had nothing on these two.

Sooner then I thought they were walking up to the cash register, a pile in each of their arms, and handed him clear credit card it had gold lines across it. I wondered where they got it. Then I wondered about something else,

"Shouldn't I try those on?" I asked.

"That will not be necessary," Alice assured me. I believed her.

Next we walked into supermarket and Alice and Rosalie immediately flew around grabbing food and toiletries as they went, dragging me around with them. When Rosalie threw some tampons in, I got curious.

"Do vampires get periods, Rose?" I asked.

She looked sad and shook her head no. when she didn't elaborate I asked her why.

"When you become a vampire all your bodily fluids get drained out of you. Your body freezes forever."

"Oh," was all I said. Then I realized why she still looked sad.

"So…" I said slowly not wanting to upset her, but curious at the same time, "you can't have a baby."

She bit her lip and shook her head again. She looked like she might cry if she could.

I ran and hugged her tight, her body was like ice and felt hard underneath me, but I hoped that it helped.

When I figured she would have calmed down. I pulled away and smiled.

"Well that also means you can't get fat right?" I asked trying to cheer her up.

"That's right," Alice said laughing, throwing a few more things in the trolley. "We are doomed to be skinny and beautiful for eternity"

That got us all laughing. By the time we stopped we were standing at the counter, Alice and Rosalie throwing things on faster then the poor cashier could ring it up. As they threw item after item onto the counter, I looked at the groceries for the first time. There was certainly an assortment of food there; I wondered what they were expecting to cook me.

Rosalie saw me staring and explained, "We haven't used the kitchen for quite awhile, this is going to be very interesting."

I laughed, trying to imagine this group cooking me my food. Then I cringed as I thought of what it might taste like.

Soon we were out of the shop and they were dragging me towards the bathroom to change.

I stepped into the stall and someone; I think Alice chucked an outfit over the top.

I pulled on the white sweater, a black coat with fur and thick looking jeans.

"Exactly how cold is Forks?" I called out to them.

They both laughed. "Well it's snowing at the moment" Alice said.

I wasn't sure if I was excited or annoyed at this.

I had never seen snow in my life I had always wondered what it was like, I had been told it was very cold though.

"Hmm," was all I replied.

Finally, they dragged me back out of the mall and towards the car. Instead of taking me towards Carlisle car, however, the pulled me through Rosalie's. Edward did not look happy about this; he shot them a warning look.

Emmett was in the driver seat with Jasper in the passenger seat, leaving me in the back with Rosalie and Alice on either side.

So the rest of the car drive was spent with answering the entire story of my life.

Emmett seemed quite excited when I told them I liked video games and they all laughed when I told them I wouldn't be following their menu.

The car grew quiet as I ran out of things to say and I looked behind us to see that Carlisle wasn't behind us anymore.

"They went to take Bella home," Jasper explained when I asked.

Suddenly I understood why Alice had taken me in this car and I wondered what I would do if I could see Charlie, obviously Alice knew.

Then we pulled off the road towards the surrounding trees. After a ten minutes drive, with the car snapping twigs and sending leaves falling as we pushed through them, we pulled up in front of the most fabulous house I have ever seen.

It was very large, at least 3 stories high, and elegant. It was painted a soft white and a porch was surrounding it.

"Wow," I breathed.

They all smiled at me.

"So you like it?" Alice asked excitedly,

I nodded.

"Come on, you have to see the inside."

With that she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the car and up the porch steps. She was certainly very pushy.

I took a deep breath as Alice opened the door.

What I saw took my breath away. It was so simple, yet so beautiful at the same time. What I saw was a large living room. To the left of the door, on a platform, was a grand piano. I guessed that whoever owned this, the family was very proud of for it.

Behind the piano was a wall that cut of half way across the room, a wooden door was set immediately behind the piano.

I could see a few seats and a couple of computers; the rest was blocked of by the wall.

On the west side of the room, I could see a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor.

But, what made me gasp was the window that made up the south wall.

I rushed over, eager to see the view and was not disappointed, the view was spectacular. You could look straight over the tops of the trees and see the lake.

"Wow," I said again, turning around to see Carlisle and Esme standing in the doorway.

They both had soft smiles on their faces, pleased with my reaction.

I looked over and saw the rest of the living room. Behind the assortment of chairs, was a large plasma TV, mounted onto the wall.

"Oh my god, that's awesome," I said excited.

I ran over to get a closer look, I saw below the TV a space in the wall, which looked like it opened.

What's in there I said pointing.

Emmett grinned widely, walked over and pressed against it. Not just the little space under the TV, but also either side of it opened up, revealing shelves. On these shelves was an assortment of Movies and Games, arranged neatly by category.

I saw a romantic movie that I really loved and pulled it out, asking if I could watch it.

Emmett groaned and walked away, he was obviously hoping I would want to play a game with him.

Alice, Rosalie and Esme seemed happy to oblige, so we all settled ourselves in and turned it on.

Halfway through the movie I started to feel tired and yawned.

"Are you tired?" Esme asked concerned, I nodded. It had certainly been a big day for me and I couldn't wait to get into a nice, warm bed.

"Where do I sleep?" I asked eyeing of the couches.

"Edwards room, it's the only one with a bed." Alice replied. I eyed her of suspiciously.

"We don't sleep," She said shrugging.

"Then why…" I began.

"For Bella," She replied and with that she picked me up and carried me up the stairs, to what I guessed was the third floor.

I felt a large, warm bed under me and fell asleep.

…

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY ROOM!!"

This was the sound I woke up to the next morning, Edward yelling.

I heard Emmett chuckling somewhere downstairs, and knew it was his doing. I reluctantly opened my eyes to check out the damage and was shocked.

Everything was pink, the bedspread was pink, the walls were pink and pink balloons were floating on the roof. It was too girly, even for me.

Suddenly I saw Emmett standing in the doorway; I heard Rosalie and Alice giggling in another room.

"I figured if April was going to move in we might as well make her comfortable."

"BY EXPLODING POMPOMS?" Edward roared, to more giggles from the girls. I have to admit even I was holding in laughter, Edwards face was priceless.

Emmett shrugged.

"It's not like your ever here anyway, your always at Bellas house."

"Well in case you haven't noticed Bella is grounded" Edward seemed to be trying to stay calm, I wondered if Jasper had anything to do with it.

"That won't stop you." Emmett stated matter-of-factly.

"I have to go to school now," Edward growled, "this better be back by the time I get back."

Emmett just laughed, but I knew he would do it. He had had his fun.

"Come on Alice!" Edward yelled as he walked down the stairs.

As soon as I heard him slam the door, I broke into a fit of giggles. Emmett was on the ground laughing.

After I had calmed down sufficiently to talk, I asked, "So where does that leave me?"

Rosalie was in the room now smiling; she grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room.

She pulled me down the stairs walked the long hallway and stopped in front of a door at the very end.

She opened the door with a grand "Tada!"

I couldn't believe it, it was quite a huge room, the south wall was a large window, and I guessed that the whole south wall was a window.

On the wall to the left of the window was a silver queen bed, it had love hearts, interloping at the head and foot of it. A bedside table sat next to it with a blue lamp and a pile of my favorite books, which I had mentioned last night.

At the end of the bed were two doors, which I guessed were my wardrobe and bathroom. They were both blue and contrasted nicely with the white walls and wooden floors.

Against the window was a wooden desk with a black laptop sitting on top of it and a silver slide phone next to it.

"Whose room is this?" I asked envious of the person.

She laughed, "Yours,"

"You did all this last night?"

"We don't sleep remember, April."

I did remember Alice telling me this, but it was still quite a feat to build a whole room in one night.

"So what do you want to do today?" She asked.

"Don't I have to go to school or anything?" I asked her.

I was excited about going to a new school; I had got quite good at it over the years as my mother liked to move around a lot. However, I was also slightly worried; I didn't know what people in Forks were like.

"Nope," she said, "Not until tomorrow."

I felt relieved. "Well what is there to do in a house of vampires?" I asked.

Then Emmett was standing in the doorway holding one of his favorite games, "I have some ideas," He said excitedly.

So for the rest of the day I played games with Emmett, not all of them video and im sure he made these ones up.

At one point he decided we could play hide and seek, until I looked for him for over an hour and Rosalie had to eventually pull him out of the forest by the ear. This sent me in another fit of giggles.

Eventually Edward came home and seemed happy with his room. I suspected Esme had fixed it up as Emmett was with me all day.

Eventually I fell asleep, in my warm, comfortable blue blankets, cuddling my pink pillows, thinking of my day tomorrow. I could guess without Alice's help that it was not going to be as fun as today. Though I knew it would way more eventful.


	6. The first day of school

April POV

I was woken up by a little pixie jumping around my room, well I guess it was the light from my window that woke me up, but it was Alice who wouldn't let me get back to sleep.

I groaned as she pulled the covers of my head once more.

"Come on, April, you have to get up it's your very first day of school."

"No its not," I grumbled. "I've been to plenty of schools."

She laughed, obviously finding my annoyance funny.

"You know what I mean silly."

I groaned again and grabbed for my blanket, but she was too quick and pulled it of my bed. Unfortunately, half my body was on top of it so I fell off with it.

I was glad at this point that the Cullens decided to install a heater in my room, as it was certainly not warm outside.

I really should have done my research before I moved, as I didn't find out until after I got here that Forks was one of the coldest places in the continental U.S. The only good thing I could think of was the snow, and it had all gone by the time I got here.

I was definitely not looking forward to going to school in this cold.

I thought briefly about sleeping on the floor, but decided it was too hard. So groggily I padded to my over to the two doors. I stood there for a while trying to remember which one was the bathroom, then I remembered I never found out yesterday. So I picked the one closest to my bed, it seemed the biggest.

I opened the door and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. It was certainly the biggest, I was sure I had never seen a bathroom this big, it was not a bathroom though, it was my closet.

It could have been a small, but fully stocked boutique. It had a small window at one end, the natural light illuminating the large mirror at the other end. One wall was for the clothes, with an arrangement of them hanging from multiple racks and white drawers fully stocked with my panties, bras and other various undergarments. I wondered when these had been brought; I didn't remember purchasing them when we were out shopping.

I turned around to look at the other side and saw that half the wall was dedicated to shoes.

This excited me, what girl doesn't love shoes?

Next to this was rows and rows of handbags, it was a very colourful display, there was all different colours and sizes.

The last thing I noticed was a huge corkboard stuck next to the bags. An assortment of jewellery and photos was hanging on it.

I was getting dizzy just looking at my closet; I couldn't even find a towel, let alone something to wear to school.

"Alice!" I yelled, I didn't need to, she was already standing at the door watching me.

"How am I supposed to find an outfit?"

She just laughed, "No worries, me and Rosalie are on it."

She smiled at me then, "You are so much easier at this then Bella."

I laughed, it was true for sisters we weren't that much alike.

I made my way out of the closet, my mind spinning from the sight of all those clothes, and turned into the next door.

This was more like a bathroom, it was simple, and it had soft blue walls and white tiles. Everything was sparkling, I guessed that was a perk of living with vampires, they had endless and free time to clean. Although, I figured most of this was due to Esme. I couldn't see Emmett or Edward cleaning. It made me giggle just to think of it.

I moved my way over to the small shower, I found my towels hanging on a rack outside it, and pulled the glass door open. Inside was my favourite shampoo and soap. I smiled; they did like to make me happy.

It didn't take me long before I was out of the shower, one towel wrapped around me and the other drying my hair. I stood in the mirror studying my features.

I tried to make similarities, between me and Bella. At first I couldn't see any, my bright blue eyes and blondish hair was far from Bella's chocolate eyes and brown hair, but as I looked closer I thought maybe I had the same shape of face, the same wide set of eyes. I guessed we could pass as sisters, though only if you looked closely. I was hoping no-one looked too closely at me today; we needed to stick to our story.

I quickly brushed my teeth and hair and walked back into my bedroom.

Lying on top of my bed was a set of clothes; I put them on and hurried over to in the mirror in my closest.

I saw that the Chanel skinny jeans that looked amazing on me, over the top of these I had a purple sweater, I was pretty sure it was going to be too small but it fitted perfectly hugging my curves and had a perfect v neck that showed only the tiniest bit of cleavage. Lastly I threw on a pair of ballet flats; I did not want to try my chances in heels, when I fell on my face barefoot.

I grabbed the mascara and coated my eyelashes with the tiniest bit. I stepped back and admired the work.

I was surprised by the girl standing in front of me, I felt as if I had matured a lot in the last three days, and by the way the sweater fitted me, I certainly looked it to.

I grabbed the brush and brushed my hair slowly, I loved my hair it always fell just in the right place I felt that I did not need to do anything else. I grabbed a white scarf and threw it around my neck, walking out of my closet, quite happy and confident. I was ready to tackle my first day.

Rose was waiting just outside the door, she smiled as she handed me a black and white Gucci bag and a white folder containing my school books and my class schedule.

"Definitely a Cullen," she said nodding in approval.

I felt content as I walked down the staircase, careful not to fall.

I froze as I reached the bottom and saw the carnage in the living room.

I had not been downstairs yesterday and now I understood why Emmett stayed upstairs with me.

There was a big hole in the wall where the Plasma used to be, plugs and wires were poking out. I could not see the plasma and didn't think I wanted to, I guessed Emmett got a little too excited while playing a game.

"What the hell happened to the TV?!" I yelled up to Emmett.

"Edward happened," Emmett said angrily from behind me.

"Edward?" I said I had not considered that he had done it. I wondered what Emmett did to him this time, was this payback for the pink room?

"Yeah Bella was over here the other day…"

"Bella? Where was I?"

"In bed," he said shrugging.

"Why was she here?"

"Will you let me finish the story?" he said, rather annoyed.

I nodded yes.

"So… Bella decided that it shouldn't just be Edward choice anymore, so she put it to a vote."

I was still confused, what was he going on about.

"What…" I started, but he was ahead of me.

"Edward got angry because we voted that we did want Bella in the family."

"She already is," I pointed out.

He laughed, "I mean like a real Cullen."

Suddenly I was angry.

"He broke the plasma just because it was decided that Bella should become something Alice has seen all along?!" I shouted

Emmett nodded.

"April, hurry up!" I heard Edward yell from his car.

I was fuming; I tried to work out ways to would annoy him.

"Don't worry," Emmett said, with a huge smile on his face, "I already got revenge."

Then I remembered Edwards pink room a couple of nights ago and I laughed as I walked out to the car.

"Serves him right," I said under my breath, but of course the whole house heard and I heard Rose laughter from upstairs.

…

As we pulled up to school I was still undecided between anger and humour. I was switching between glaring at Edward and breaking into giggles every few seconds, Bella kept giving me worried glances from the front seat.

Edward had told me not to tell Bella; apparently he didn't want her knowing he could rip apart a plasma with his bare hands. I was sure she already knew this, but didn't want to push Edwards luck with anything about Bella so I dropped it.  
When we pulled into a car space, I didn't need to worry about this anymore as a totally new feeling settled over me, anxiety.

Every face standing in the parking lot turned to face us, Bella blushed. I wished that Jasper hadn't already graduated; I could really use his gift.

Alice turned to me, "remember, you're a Cullen now, you can handle this."

I attempted a smile, "right, I will just get my vampire abilities out."

That sent laughter ringing through the car from everyone except Edward he had a dark look on his face, a look that reminded me of his face when he found his room pink, this made me laugh even more.

I heard him mumble something under his breath, but couldn't hear what it was.

I didn't care; I stepped out the car still laughing.

It died when I looked around again, everyone was still staring, they were whispering as well.

I put on my best smile, and tried to walk as gracefully as I could towards the office. It was not an easy feat with Alice by my side, and failed completely as I tripped through the door.

The lady sitting behind the desk looked up as I made my way towards her.

"April Cullen, I assume?"

So I was being talked about already, great.

I nodded.

"Hmm," she said as she looked at me closely, I wondered what had been said about me.

"You need to get these signed." She said handing a handful of papers.

"I assume Dr Cullen gave you your schedule and map,"

I nodded again, wondering if I should say something. Alice had left me at the door.

"Thank you," I said, attempting a small smile.

"Not a problem dear." She didn't seem sincere and still seemed to be studying me; I wondered about what she was looking for. Then I started freaking out, what if she knew about my real family? I turned around and walked out of there as fast as I could, scared I would start hyperventilating.

I walked out into the rain, only remembering then that I forgot my jacket, I cursed and ran to the nearest shelter to study my schedule.

I had Spanish first, I groaned. I was never good at other languages, I was sure Carlisle knew a few; I would have to get him to help me.

I walked slowly around the school, hoping both that I was going in the right direction and that I wasn't too late. I felt grateful when I saw a bunch of seniors standing against a building, I started to walk faster.

I managed to step in a puddle though, making my feet slide from under me and I landed on the wet ground. I groaned this was not a good start.

They all stood there laughing at me, I started laughing to. It would have looked pretty funny. Then a small nerdy boy broke away and walked over to me, offering me his hand.

"You're not related to Bella Swan by any chance?"

I let go of his hand and fell back on the ground. How could he know that?

"No," I said, hoping I sounded innocent, "Why would you ask that?"

He laughed, "She had an uncanny gift to fall on her arse as well."

I laughed to at that too. It was completely true, I had seen it myself. It was lucky she had Edward. I had wondered frequently how she survived before him.

Another boy, stood beside the other boy now, offering me his hand. This boy had blonde hair, which looked suspiciously like a bad copy of Edwards. He had a goofy smile on his face.

"No way, Swan doesn't match up to you" he exclaimed I didn't like the way his eyes wondered, so I pushed myself up with my own hands.

"She's actually a really good friend." I said trying not to show my distaste as I walked away.

"Wait up," He called after me, I rolled my eyes. "What have you got?"

"Spanish," I said hopefully, I didn't really like the idea of walking besides this guy but I couldn't see how I was going to find it myself.

"Right this way," he said again offering me his hand. I looked over his shoulder the nerd looked disappointed and another girl looked angry. Again I refused his hand and started walking in the direction his other arm was pointing.

He sighed and followed me. "I'm Mike, by the way." He said flashing me a smile, he obviously thought was seductive.

I tried to smile back at him.

"April," I replied simply.

We eventually got to a door with _Spanish _written in black letters at the top of it.

He looked through the door and smiled again.

"I guess your in my sisters class, she's the blonde at the back." He said waving to a snobby girl, raising her eyebrows at him.

I turned to see him mouth 'be nice'.

"Thanks," I said to him, pushing open the door.

The teacher looked up as I walked in; he was a very short man with large glasses. It made him look very much like a bug.

I walked over to his desk and handed him the piece of paper in my hand. He signed it then looked up.

"You're a Cullen?" he asked, obviously surprised.

I scowled at him, "Yes, is there a problem?" I asked.

"Not at all," He said taken aback.

"Take a seat, please, and we can start the class."

I looked around, glad to see that Mikes sister didn't have a spare seat next to her. I sat instead in front of an excited looking, brown hair girl.

"Hi," she said as soon as I sat down, extending her hand. "I'm Vanessa Weber."

I smiled at her, I was glad some people could be friendly here. Well, at least a friendly that didn't scream 'I want to touch you'. I shuddered as I remembered Mike's hopeful face.

"I'm April Cullen," I said, wanting to be able to say April Swan.

"Well this schools certainly something, huh?" I said, looking for conversation.

She laughed, "Yes, it certainly is, I especially like the compulsory P.E." she said sarcastically.

My mouth fell opened; I had not seen that written on my schedule. This school was definitely brutal; they could not expect me to be part of that, could they?

"They don't?" I asked shocked.

"Oh, yes they do."

I groaned.

"At least they won't make you do it today." She said, trying to cheer me up.

"And why's that?" I asked.

She laughed again, "Well you can't be expected do physical activity in those clothes."

I laughed along this time.

The teacher wouldn't let us talk after that so we lapsed into silence while I tried to figure the damn class out.

At the end of the boring lecture, Vanessa asked me if I would sit with her at lunch, I told her I would rather sit with my family.

"Hmm," she exclaimed, I was getting quite sick of hearing that.

"What?" I asked her angrily.

"Well… you just seem so… different to them," she commented shyly.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I tried to act calmly; I didn't want to scare my only friend of.

"Well, you're a lot friendlier," She said more confidently.

I laughed; I certainly knew that, I was not at all capable of ripping apart a TV.

"I guess they just like their space," I said kindly, "I wouldn't take it personally."

"Hmm, I guess…" she said thoughtfully.

I walked off to my next class before she could say anything else.

Unfortunately my next class was P.E. I was even more disappointed when I saw Mike's sister was in the class. She didn't talk to me though, she just keep giving me dirty looks.

Vanessa was right, as the rest of the class played dodge ball I sat on a bench to the side. I was disappointed when the teacher told me that next class I would be participating, I did not particularly like this idea of a ball being pegged at me, it certainly didn't sound appealing.

I was not alone for long though as a cute boy with brown hair got hit in the head and had to come sit next to me.

He looked fairly embarrassed by the red spot forming on his head. He looked away shyly, he reminded me of Aden. I felt a massive pain of guilt as I remembered him. I had left him in Italy, he probably had no idea what happened to me. He probably thought that I had met the same fate as my mother. I could just imagine his gorgeous face crippled in anxiety. He had felt responsible for me since my mum and I had turned up in the busy town, I hated to think of how he felt now.

"I don't think Ashley likes you," the shy guy said besides me.

"Really?" I replied, I wasn't really listening to him I was still getting over my shock and pain.

"No, it's not like she hands out daggers to everyone, I think it has something to do with your clothes I heard her comment about them before." He said, hoping to give me some sort of explanation for her rudeness. I had no doubt that it was more then that, a girl like her would jump at the chance to talk to someone dressed as I was.

I tried to laugh weakly, I couldn't care less what some snob thought of me, and I had more important things on my mind.

After that, all conversation with him was cut short, to my relief, as more people made their way to the bench.

Eventually I made my escape from the small gym and towards my next class.

All through my next classes many guys took it upon themselves to sit next to me

Or walk me to various classes; this caused many fights that I choose to walk away from.

Most of them didn't even realise I had walked away until I was already around the corner, this was very amusing. I eventually become sick of this though and as I made my way to the cafeteria I was grimacing quite a bit.

I didn't even make it to the cafeteria though as I rounded the corner of a building I saw Emmett leaning against a wall, Edward, Alice and Bella already near him. I figured he had got bored without a TV, but I didn't care this brightened up my day. I had only known him for 2 days, but I already loved my big brother.

"How's your first day so far little sis?" He said enjoying, the little façade he was putting on.

I decided to play along, "Terrible," I complained, "all these boys keep drooling over me, I would love my big brother to teach them a lesson."  
This I expected him to respond to enthusiastically, but instead he laughed.

"Yeah, right,"

I stared at him shocked, he honestly didn't believe me.

"You think I'm lying?" I asked in disbelief.

Edward laughed to now; he obviously thought it was hilarious. Alice had her lips pulled into a line. Bella looked worried.

"Well if you think you're so hot, prove it," he said pointedly.

"Fine!" I said I had seen Mike talking to his sister; this was going to be too easy.

I turned around and Bella grabbed my hand, "Where are you going?" she asked worried.

"To find Mike Newton and get him to ask me out," I said I had thought it was fairly obvious.

"No!" Edward and Alice said at the same time.

We all turned to look at them. "How about Tyler Crowley?" Edward asked instead.

"That's too easy," Bella stated, "Just get him to nearly kill you."

They all laughed at that, I was obviously missing the joke.

After much discussion, we finally settled on a junior that looked pretty intimidating and was sitting on the hood of his car, with a bunch of his friends around him. Well Bella found him intimidating; I lived with a bunch of vampires and knew that this guy would be nothing without his friends.

I took a deep breath and walked over to him, slowly playing the whole innocent role.

"Hello," I said innocently, locking eye contact with the tall guy that was reclining on the hood. "I'm April, I'm new, and I'm quite inexperienced I would be _extremely_ pleased if one of you would help me," I said this in a sweetly innocent voice, not losing eye contact with the object of my interest.

They all just stood there smirking, I wondered if I laid it on a bit too thick. But then the reclining guy smiled wickedly and jumped of the car.

"I would be happy to," he said and put his arm around me pulling me away from his laughing friends.

I shot an 'I told you so' look over to Emmett, he raised his eyebrows.

Just as I suspected, as soon as he was away from the idiots he wasn't so intimidating.

He pulled his arm from around my shoulder, but didn't move away.

For the rest of lunch I was stuck with this guy, who I soon found out was named Derek.

Derek had black hair and dark brown eyes, he was quite attractive. But he was annoyingly over interested. He was constantly asking question. I was thankful when the bell went for the next period, I knew he was about to ask me to his prom.

What I didn't find out until the end of the day was that nearly half my year and a few more juniors, and even a few seniors, saw this as an opportunity and were constantly asking me to various proms and dances.

I knew that this was Emmett's plan all alone, this deserved some serious payback and I knew I was going to need the help of Edward, Alice and Rosalie I just didn't know what I was going to do. I was sure Alice would have a few plans.

What was it about these guys; did they set off to annoy me personally? Emmett does this and Edward decided to break a plasma for no good reason.

Then I remembered there was a reason, I struggled to remember what Emmett had said this morning.

"_Edward got angry because we voted that we did want Bella in the family."_

"_She already is," I pointed out._

_He laughed, "I mean like a real Cullen." _

… A real Cullen I had not thought about what that had meant this morning, now that I did I felt the hole that had sealed up when I meet her break open again, it was just like a fresh wound ripping me apart one organ at a time.

Bella, the sister that I just found, was going to leave me again; she was going to become a vampire. I was losing my family, my life all over again. I was going to lose my only sister, my only family tie left. Of course, I knew there was also Charlie but I wasn't allowed to see him. I wondered if I ever would or if I was doomed to be alone.


	7. Aprils wishes

I sat on the staircase, my head in my hands, listening to the steady heartbeats coming from the bedroom to my left.

I had got quite used to April chatter over the last couple of days, but since lunch that Friday, there was none. It was only a month ago, but she has hardly spoken a word since. She goes to school, does all her work and when she gets home she stays in her room. She tries as hard as she can to keep her silent cries to herself, I quite admired her efforts, but every now and then I would hear a strangled sob escape, causing my non-existent heart to break. I became extremely frustrated that I didn't know what upset her so much and wished yet again that she was not an exception to my abilities.

I had at first thought this was due to Emmett's prank, but Alice had assured me that this was not the case. She said she would have seen it as soon as Emmett made the decision, she only saw Aprils revenge, which was evidently very funny.

Though, every time I asked her the reason she rushed of to do something and her mind was just as helpful, Alice had become quite good at blocking out my gift. She simply started to work out complicated translations or complex math's problem.

It was really irritating and I tried to think of things I might have done to upset her, the only thing I could think of was breaking the stupid TV and Esme had already made me replace it and Emmett got his revenge so I couldn't see why she was still upset.

This was not where I really wanted to be though; I was waiting for seven o'clock pm so that I could be with Bella finally.

I gritted my teeth as I looked at my watch again, only 6:35pm. I knew that I never liked that stupid werewolf, but now I absolutely hated him.

I knew that I should be eternally grateful to him that he kept Bella together while I was gone, but it still didn't stop the things I heard in his mind. Ever since he found out that I could read minds he has been using it to his advantage, filling my mind with his thoughts on Bella, and showing me images of the Bella I had left behind. These were by fair the most painful. Bella had certainly hit rock bottom and that is what kept me here now, when every sensible side of me screaming to stay away. I knew that I just couldn't do that, I knew she needed me as much as I needed her. I thought maybe she needed me a bit too much, I could not understand why she would give up her life, her soul for me.

I thought that I had finally convinced her otherwise, but then she puts it to a stupid vote, which my family supported. I couldn't believe that they would allow this to happen to my sweet, innocent Bella, but there was nothing I could do about it know the decision was made. Well, I had thought there was nothing I could do but I soon found a way around that. I knew that I couldn't stop it, but I could get what I wanted before it was too late. I would make sure that Bella got the most out of her human experiences, the most important being a traditional wedding.

She was not at all happy about this at first, but I knew that she would change her mind. I knew she wanted more then anything for me to be the one that changed her, so I had used this as a sort of bribery.

I smiled as remembered the images I had seen in Alice's head, this was how I knew that she would agree.

My grin soon faded as the silent sobs suddenly break through and the waterfalls finally started to fall. They were only silent but with the whole house was quiet it was as if she was screaming, I couldn't take it any more I had to do something, anything to stop it.

"Alice!" I said panicking; she was immediately by my side.

"There's nothing I can do Edward," she said sadly.

"What if I brought her a TV for her room?" I asked hopefully.

"It's not about that," Alice said nervously. I tried to read her mind, but it was a jumble of swirling images as Alice tried to focus on what she wanted.

"What is it about, then?" I asked desperately, but she just held up a finger.

I looked into her mind once more, I saw Bella drift in and out quickly, then she was replaced by Aprils' mother, finally I saw a picture of April and Charlie, it was the same one I had seen the day April found out and I grimaced yet again.

"She wouldn't?" I asked incredulously.

"She's desperate, Edward." She said pleadingly.

"She can't though,"

"I know that, but it's what she wants, why do you think she's been so sad Edward, she needs her family in her life."

I couldn't believe that Alice was willing to go along with this and I still didn't understand why she was so upset.

"She has Bella,"

"Not for long," Alice spoke softly, almost under her breath but I still heard every word as if she yelled it. I knew that she didn't mean death, and I felt the anger rise up in me.

"I knew this was a bad idea," I said through my teeth.

Alice sighed, "Its going to happen anyway, Edward, it always was, you knew that."

I tried to think this through. I did know that, and even though I had done everything in my power to stop it, it was still going to happen, there was nothing I could do except get what I could out of it. But April wanted her family, a family that was going to be taken away from her and a family that didn't yet know. Charlie couldn't be told yet, if he was then April wouldn't have much of a life with him anyway. Then I remembered a conversation I had had with April a while ago.

"That's brilliant!" Alice exclaimed,

"But we will have to run it by Bella," I said.

"That won't be a problem," she said confidently, "But we should run it by Charlie, she is still grounded."

I groaned as I remembered and looked at my clock again 6:55 pm.

"Lets go then." I said impatiently, I would finally be able to see Bella again.

Five minutes later we pulled up out the front of the house.

I practically ran to the door and knocked, Alice skipped up besides me.

Bella threw the door open no more then 5 seconds later.

"Edward!" she exclaimed and hugged me, I pulled her tight and sniffed her hair, oh how I had missed this in the four hours we had been apart, then I drew her back and kissed her lightly

I pulled her back softly as I heard Charlie in my head.

_The nerve of him right in front of me too, I wonder if they would notice a bullet missing. _

Bella pouted and looked at her father reprovingly.

Then Charlie noticed Alice and I immediately blocked these thoughts out, they were images I really did not need to see.

"Hey Charlie," She chirped enthusiastically.

"Hey Alice, we were just eating dinner would you like to join us?"

I saw the frown on her face, as she shook her head.

"Edward?" Charlie asked less willingly,

"No thank you Chief Swan," I said politely.

His grimaced as he said "Charlie, please."

Bella and Charlie sat back down to eat and Alice and I sat with them, pretending to enjoy our drinks. I was smiling down at Bella as she ate, I would certainly miss this. I was just starting to imagine her hunting when Alice spoke,

"Bella, did you know its Aprils birthday on Friday."

Bella turned away from me to look at Alice questioningly, of course she knew this. April hadn't stopped going on about it before she stopped talking altogether.

"That's yours and Edward younger sister right?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, of course, although, she's more like Bella then any of us." Alice said laughing.

I aimed a kick at Alice, she didn't stop smiling though she did shoot a vicious thought at me, _we have to give him some warning._

Charlie didn't seem to notice any of this, Bella looked suspicious.

"Wow, only two days away huh? How old is she turning?" Charlie wondered.

"Yep, she's going to be sixteen."

"Only sixteen?" He asked he obviously guessed, like I had, that she was much older.

"Yes, she our adorable, little sister, and she absolutely adores Bella."

"So… is there going to be a party?" Bella asked confused, I had to laugh at her; she looked so totally, Bella.

"No, we knew that Bella was still grounded so we didn't want to leave her out,"

Bella and Charlie both looked completely confused, so I decided I should get to the point.

"We were actually wondering if April could spend a couple of nights here, you know like a birthday sleep over."

Charlie looked at me accusingly, he was mulling it over in his mind, _it sounds pretty harmless, and she certainly needs some time away from _his _influence…_

I smiled at this last thought, if only he knew how much time I really did spend with his daughter. I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy about my nightly visits.

"If that's alright with you Charlie," Alice said, falsely concerned.

Of course we all knew that he could not argue with her.

"I guess that would be alright…" he said slowly.

"But I don't want you up too late Bella."

Bella just nodded, I could tell she was worried and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

I shook my head slightly and she calmed down a touch.

Alice left soon after that, no doubt to tell April the good news.

As Alice walked out the door, Charlie lost interest and wondered into the lounge room to watch his game.

As soon as I motioned that Charlie had stopped listening, Bella immediately started talking as if she had been holding it in for a long time, by the way she held her lips tight since I made the announcement, she had.

"You're really going to let her meet him?" she asked in disbelief.

I knew why she was so shocked, in the weeks April had been here, me and the rest of my family had made sure that she could in no way interact with Charlie.

I had thought, we had done a pretty good job disguising it, but apparently we had failed.

I shrugged, "You've seen her, Bella, we're out of options."  
Her brow wrinkled in concern, "But you said it would be better for his health if we held it off,"

"We are still not planning on telling him, but I think it would be fine if she just got to meet him." I explained to her.

She suddenly became suspicious, "Why are you changing your mind now"

I hesitated, I did not want to tell her about how much April had broke down this evening she would only worry more.

"Well I figured she needed some cheering up, and this is the perfect birthday present."

I finally said.

She nodded obviously happy with this response.

Suddenly I had a memory of another birthday, one that had disastrous consequences, I flinched inwardly. Then I remembered that I had never given her back her presents.

I was just about to mention this when Charlie sauntered back into the room, announcing it was 930.

I got up quickly and walked to the door, Bella followed as I got to the door I turned around and kissed her quickly, then before Charlie could comment I was in my car and driving of. I saw Bella face fall and laughed.

As I was driving home I was glad that I would finally be able to go home to a happy place, something that I had been missing out on in the last few weeks.

…

However, the house still remained quiet it was a better quiet tonight. It sounded as if April was finally having a peaceful sleep.

I smiled to myself and walked up to the house, I was surprised to see everyone else just as quiet; Carlisle was silently reading the newspaper in his hands, the rest of the family were intently watching the news on TV.

I looked at Carlisle for an answer, _your going to find out anyway, _

Is what he thought as he handed me the paper.

I scanned the paper and froze,

**Death toll on the rise,**

**Police fear gang activity.**

That was the heading that jumped out of the front page, it went on to describe how there has been many night time disappearances, how the bodies turn up poorly disposed of later, how the police have no leads as there is a lack of evidence. In simple terms it meant a newborn was on the loose with no one taking responsibility.

I couldn't see why the whole family was stiff though, why there was so much tension as they waited for my reaction.

I looked back down confused and then I stiffened too.

This was happening in Seattle, not more then an hour drive away.

There had not been newborns in this area as far as I could remember, and I had a pretty good memory.

I sighed trust this to happen only when Bella was around. In the last year itself she had nearly devastated the crime rate in this little town numerous times. It was amazing that the humans of this community still managed to remain oblivious to such obvious danger in their presence.

"Well what do we do?" I asked Carlisle.

He sighed to, "I truly don't know."

Emmett looked excited, "We fight them," he said simply.

"Why should we?" Rosalie said heatedly, "They aren't our problem."

"Humans are dying Rose" Alice said angrily.

I knew to everyone else Rose sounded selfish, but I knew that she was just looking out for Emmett and would do anything to stop him from participating. I knew that feeling all too well so I didn't comment. We had all seen the scars on Jaspers arms; we knew what fighting a newborn would cost us.

They argued for quite a while after that, until Carlisle had had enough.

"Stop," He said this softly, though both girls were quiet immediately.

"I agree with Rose, it isn't our problem." Alice opened her mouth, but Carlisle cut her off.

"I have no doubt that the Volturi will involve themselves soon enough,"

No-one argued with that, everyone knew it was true.

"Alice I would appreciate it if you could keep an eye on them for me,"

Alice nodded and Carlisle looked satisfied.

After that we dropped the subject, and all went back to various activities.

Esme wandered off to clean something and Jasper went to discuss something with Carlisle.

Rose and Emmett started eye each other of, I could see exactly where their thoughts were heading and shuddered away from them.

To distract myself I walked over to Alice, "How did April take the news?" I asked her.

"She will be almost back to normal by tomorrow morning,"

"Almost?" I asked as I saw Emmett and Rosalie walk up the stairs, I tried to concentrate on the conversation, it wasn't easy.

Alice ignored my question, I didn't notice as a wicked smile lit up her face, "This is going to be so much more fun then Bellas birthday, Aprils actually likes getting spoiled."

I cringed as I remembered that faithful birthday. I tried to push the thoughts away, it was not easy.

"What are we going to get her?" I asked I was intently trying to focus on the next two days; it was not easy Emmett's thoughts mixed with my memories were bombarding my mind.

Alice then went into a full description of her extravagant plans, although she assured me that there would be no parties or difficult wrapping paper. I knew we would all have to be very careful. I was soon distracted as we discussed the best 16th birthday present ever.

I saw that it was getting pretty late so I raced out the door anxious to be with Bella again, no doubt she was trying to keep herself awake waiting for me and I knew how much humans needed their sleep.

…

The next day Alice's' prediction was proved right; April came bounding down the stairs in the morning, tripping on the last stair and falling on her hands and knees.

"Oh, so nobody helps me," she said, faking annoyance, though her laughter gave it away.

The rest of the day we were blessed with Aprils calming babbling, I felt that every thing was finally back to normal. We walked past a bin on our way to class and I spotted a newspaper that had been thrown away. I sighed; well not completely normal… it never was anymore.

I looked down and saw Bella smiling up at me, I smiled back at her. Well if a danger magnet was the consequence of having the most beautiful girlfriend in the world I guess I could live with it.


	8. Recovering

Aprils POV

I lay in bed trying to control my breathing; this was becoming a pretty much daily routine. It wasn't as if I had asthma problems or anything, I had just discovered that this was the most effective way to stop the flood that threatened to overflow through my eyes.

Though today was different I could feel it as I took another gulping breath. Today was the hardest; I had had the nightmare again.

I tried to think of other things but my mind keep wandering back to the same depressing thought, Bella was destined to be a vampire, and I was going to be all alone.

Of course I knew this not to be true; I knew that I would always have this houseful of loving vampires, but this was exactly the point they were vampires. It was not as if I missed my human companions, I was always so bored with their indecisions and slowness I felt more comfortable here, it was the fact that feared how different Bella would become, would she even remember me or would I become an insignificant human memory?

Suddenly I knew I had lost the battle as the sobs escaped my lips, yet again, and the tears started to cascade down my face.

I heard Edward yell out, but I ignored him. He had tried many methods to get me talking again, in the end he decided to ignore me as much as I did everyone else. I didn't mind, I didn't care about much in the last week or so.

Alice started to join in with the talking, then I heard Edward voice rise

"She wouldn't?" he sounded upset, so Alice had finally told him.

I knew that Alice knew, she shot me warning looks every time I decided that they couldn't stop me going to see Charlie. This was a stupid idea, of course they could.

I tuned out the rest of the conversation and sooner then I thought they were getting into Edwards car. I turned to look at my clock 6:55pm so they were going to see Bella, I wondered why Alice went. But then my mind turned to Bella again and I broke down once more.

Carlisle had ordered the rest of the family to leave me alone when after a couple of days into my depression Emmett had attempted to cheer me up by cracking jokes about how funny my face was when I half the male population of the school started following me around. Emmett was not the most compassionate person on Earth, but luckily Carlisle was so besides Esme, who brought in my meals so I didn't starve the rest of the family stayed away from me except when I was required at school.

However, the whole house had obviously heard my stupid cries, though I had tried my best to remain silent I couldn't deny the fact that I lived in a houseful of vampires, and they now all rushed into my room, with the exception of Alice and Edward who had no doubt rushed to spend time with another anxious human.

I closed my eyes as an assortment of cold hands each reached to reassure me. This was exactly what I had feared that they would all rush in to see the pitiful human speculation. I opened my eyes slowly fearing the pity to crush me, instead I looked into five very concerned faces, I inhaled sharply, I didn't know how my body would react it was very temperamental. Sure enough I surprised me my joints, which had been tense all week, relaxed and my whole being seemed to calm down. I looked up to see Jasper smiling down at me, he knew how much I hated being controlled so he had been staying away from me lately, he had not been able to take the misery that overtook me. he looked unsure, so I attempted a smile I was grateful to finally feel something besides the sinking feeling in my heart.

For the first time in a few weeks I felt warmth spread over my body and I felt the feeling I had been denying myself, love.

I realized then that I had been trying to shelter myself from getting any closer to anyone to Bella, or anyone, so that I could keep the little heart that I still had intact. Now I saw that this was unnecessary when I had so much love surrounding me.

I looked around at the other four vampires; I couldn't deny the looks of genuine concern on their beautiful faces. I realized they were all talking at once at frightening speed. I tried to figure it out, but I just succeeded in making my head spin. I brought my hand up to my forehead, brushing against my cheek; I felt the wetness still fresh on my white face and my hair in a tangled mess on top of my head. I became worried as I remembered the fact that I had been lying in bed with the same clothes I have been wearing all day on, and that I probably didn't look as perfect as the anxious faces above me.

Jasper and Carlisle soon picked up on my worries and the others soon shut up.

They all looked uncertain on what to do.

"Is there anything you would like dear?" Esme asked in her sweet, worried tone.

There were, of course, many things that I wanted, I wanted to make it up to them, I wanted to see Bella while I still had time, I wanted to see Charlie... but I started with the most basic.

"A shower," I said, the blush working its way up to my face, my voice was hoarse with lack of use. That would definitely have to change.

Rose looked at the boys pointedly; they immediately rushed out of the room. Jasper was happy, he knew that I had got over the worst of it, Carlisle still looked slightly worried, he knew that even though I had gotten over the worst of it I still wasn't completely back yet, Emmett still looked anxious, as usual he was oblivious to anything though he seemed happy that I had spoken.

I hang my legs over the bed and put my feet on the ground, it was cold I hadn't bothered to put my heater on; I shivered slightly and stood up. My vision blurred as my head spun. Rose sighed and Esme held onto my arm directing me to the bathroom. I smiled up at her in appreciation.

I looked at them as they stood there waiting for me to undress, I wasn't that incompetent, so I told them wait for me in the bedroom. Esme shot me a worried glance as I shut the door and started to undress. As I pulled my top over my belly, I looked in the mirror and gasped.

I had been avoiding the mirror purposefully in the last week not wanting to see my face pulled down in a frown. What I hadn't realized was just how skinny I had gotten, I was used to practically stuffing my face all day with various lollies and chocolates – I had quite a sweet tooth- I didn't know that living on only 3 meals could shrink my stomach this much. I belly, which was usually flat anyways, was now pointing in the opposite direction, my naval ring was poking out dangerously and my ribs were starting to show. I definitely needed to do a lot of damage control.

I washed myself quickly and as the warm water fell over my body, the sleepless nights started to catch up with me and I felt my eyelids droop and turned of the water and grabbed my towel. I noticed, as I wrapped the towel around myself, that as my belly had gotten smaller certain other parts had grown I wondered if I had completely missed my birthday but as I opened my bedroom door Alice denied my thoughts.

"April! Did you know it's your birthday in two days?" well now I did, "and did you know that I have the best birthday present ever for you."

I nodded sleepily as I made my way over to my bed, Alice started to tell me what this present was, but I was already asleep. I would ask her about it in the morning.

…

Tonight I was grateful that I wasn't interrupted by nightmares as I didn't want to wake up to unpleasant thoughts. I had finally registered what Alice had said while I was in my sleepy state.

I jumped out of bed, getting a massive head spin, and raced out my door and down the stairs blindly. I tripped on the last stair, sprawling across the floor on my hands and knees.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed, though even this didn't ruin my mood. "Oh, so nobody helps me?" I asked as Edward and Emmett stood laughing above me, I tried to fake annoyance but the laughter soon bubbled over and I lay on the ground giggling stupidly.

Esme came into the room carrying a large plate of bacon and eggs; I eyed it of hungrily and practically run, following Esme into the dining room. It was quite strange the dining room contained a rather large dining table that stretched along the length of the room; I guessed this it was part of the cover up. Still I felt strange and small being the only one sitting in the middle of the table.

I was soon preoccupied with the food, I hadn't realized how truly hungry I was until I took a bite of bacon and in a very short time the whole plate was empty.

I sat there for a second, and my happiness wore of slightly. So I hurried back upstairs to get dressed, as usual either Rose or Alice had laid out an outfit for me, I still hadn't worked out the small shop in my room. I knew that I just had to keep myself busy; I wouldn't allow myself any time to think.

Soon though I had gotten dressed, cleaned up my already tidy room and tried unsuccessfully to memorize all my clothes (the last one took the most time before I eventually gave up) so I was left standing in front of my large mirror watching the fear take over my face as I realized I was left with nothing to do.

I stood looking at my forehead crease over my bright eyes for a couple of minutes and then looked over my outfit. I had a yellow scoop top sweater and was amazed once again at how much I had grown, I was sure I was completely flat when I had traveled over to Italy with my mum could it have only been a couple of months ago? Now I was awed at the way I filled out the top perfectly. It wasn't as though I was already developed back then, I had already dealt with the unfortunate consequences of being a girl, I had been dealing with them the whole last week that was probably another reason I had been much more depressed then I would have usually been.

A small smile crept up on my face as I remembered getting the curves and freaking out thinking I had just eaten too much, though it was only my hips that had gotten slightly more defined, my mum had assured me that I was still as slim as ever and it was true I had never been fat, I just never would be.

I also remembered how I had gone through the rebellious stage and eventually gotten my belly pierced, mum had freaked out at that and after seeing her break down I soon snapped out of it.

I felt the sadness slip over me once more as I remembered my mother, the mother I would never see again.

Though I felt it disappear just as quickly and I looked back in the mirror to see Alice and Jasper standing behind me, maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all I didn't know how I had been trying to escape this for so long. I definitely needed to make it up to them.

"I really get to see him?" I asked excited now as I remembered Alice's promise last night.

She nodded, "But you still can't tell him," she said carefully. I knew they were both waiting for me to break down again, but I didn't have the energy for that.

I didn't mind that he was still in the dark; I felt I could handle this; I was just pleased that I finally got to see him at all.

"Ok," I said shrugging, they both looked relieved.

"You ready?" she asked,

"I get to meet him now?" I asked, my heart started thumping at these words.

She laughed, "No, I told you, it's a birthday present and your birthdays not until tomorrow"

My face fell, "So where are we going then?" I asked confused.

Jasper laughed too now, "You have school remember?"

Now I did remember, "Oh yeah," I said and grabbed my bag and folder, heading out the house, after Alice.

My excitement faded as I walked in to school to see that I still had a few admirers. Luckily they was only a few sophomores left all the older guys had given up after I had shown no interest, I actually had a suspicion that this was more due to the fact that Edward had 'had a talk' with them, well all the seniors except for one. Mike still managed to follow me around like a little puppy and tried, unsuccessfully, to get his sister to become my friend.

I was soon left alone when the bell went and Alice Edward and Bella, who shot me a sympathetic look, went to their first period classes. A bunch of hopefully looking boys immediately flocked around me offering to carry my books for me it annoyed me that I was seen as some sort of damsel in distress, though I'm sure that is exactly how I would have looked lately, and I pulled my books back of them and walked of quickly. I was busy trying to get away from them that I didn't notice until I walked into him, that I had ran right into my worst annoyance.

Mike turned around and I tried to walk in the opposite direction before he noticed it was me, "Hey, April," I cringed and kept walking hoping I could pretend I didn't hear him. He was not put of though and started running after me, when he caught me he jumped in front of me blocking my path, I glowered at him, he didn't even notice.

"What have you got first?" he asked me even though I was sure he had memorized my whole timetable by now.

"Gym," I said grimacing, I couldn't see how this day could get worse. Again he didn't notice my discomfort; he wasn't even looking at my face.

I knew what question was coming next so I looked around desperately trying to get out of it, too late,

"I will walk you," he said, still staring a dozen centimeters from my face.

I saw Vanessa walking quickly past us,

"Sorry," I said to him before my chance could escape, "I told Vanessa I would walk with her today."

Vanessa looked up at her name, Mike looked down at her disbelieving and she blushed in response.

I turned away from him and started walking quickly away, dragging Vanessa along with me.

"Sorry about that," I said as I caught a glimpse at her confused expression, "I needed to escape,"

I could understand why she was confused I hadn't talked to her since that first day, I hadn't talked to anybody and she didn't push unlike others. I was grateful for this; she seemed like the only nice person in this school.

She still looked confused as we approached the gym I noticed that the guys were staring at me shamelessly and a few started to wander over. Soon enough all the boys were walking towards me, except one. I noticed he was the same brown haired guy that was constantly hurting himself stood there staring to the left of me. I turned to my left and saw a very nervous looking Vanessa freaking out at the oncoming stampede.

"Who's is that?" I asked her pointing to the guy that continued to look over at her, he notice me pointing and looked away blushing.

"Umm, that's Sam Robertson, why do you ask?" This certainly distracted her; I smiled as I noticed she sighed when she said his name.

"Oh, I was just wondering he was looking over here," I said

"Oh…" She replied and I realized how selfish this sounded so I hurried to correct myself.

"Yeah," I said shrugging "He was practically staring at you."

This changed her tone, "Me?" she asked in disbelief.

I nodded, "I think he likes you," I said conspiratorially.

She looked nervous again,

"You better hurry up before someone else snaps him up." I told her seriously, she looked worried and I smiled as I hurried into the gym with my herd of followers.

They even tried to follow me into the change rooms until the teacher yelled at them saying if they didn't leave me alone then they would get detention for the rest of the year.

I was grateful at this as I changed out of my high pumps and pulled my sketchers on, changing into track pants and the same time.

Unfortunately I found out that leaving me alone also meant no one defended me from the balls that Ashley continued to peg at me.

I was left with bruises forming all over me as I walked to lunch. Bella noticed right away, "What happened to you?" she asked shocked.

"This is apparently what happens when a stupid teacher puts a ball in a psychopaths hand and you don't have a gang of loyal followers to protect you," I grumbled.

Alice laughed.

"I don't see what I did wrong, it's not my fault that her stupid brother has an obsession with Me." as soon as I said Edward flinched, I could tell he didn't mean to show it and quickly tried to hide it.

"What?" I asked him, I was still fairly annoyed.

"You don't have to see into his head,"

I shuddered at the thought that was true and I was glad that I couldn't, his staring was enough to make me puke.

"I still don't see why that deserves the treatment from Ashley,"

Edward seemed to pick his words very carefully as he answered me,

"Mike has a… habit of making Ashley… use her friends for… his benefit." He paused a few times to pick the right word.

I felt sick, I looked over at Mike and saw that he was indeed eyeing of the group of girls Ashley sat with, like he was picking a meal from a buffet.

"That little pervert!" I exploded, "I will… I'm gunna…" I really had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew that I wanted to pound him and make sure he couldn't use certain parts of his manhood.

Edward was staring open mouthed at me; he had never seen me angry before, he certainly didn't expect this reaction. Alice was silently holding in laughter, Bella still looked concerned and a little sick.

I just sat there shaking slightly, trying to convince myself that it wouldn't be any good to deck him in the middle of the cafeteria.

My anger started to win and I rose from my chair, luckily the bell rang then, saved by the bell, I thought.

I hurried of to English before Mike could start to follow me. I sat down and tried to lose myself in the teacher's explanation of Shakespeare's plays, I had already read the text we would be studying, Romeo and Juliet, many times so I lost interest and tried to distract myself in other ways. I started thinking about my birthday tomorrow and succeeded being distracted for the rest of the day.

I had completely forgotten about Mike by the time I walked to the car at the end of the day, thinking instead about what everyone could possibly get me for my birthday, this was very hard to figure out as they had already given me everything I needed.

I was brought out of my musing as I saw Rose standing besides her bright red sports car, I looked over at her suspicious, the last of my elder siblings to turn up to school hadn't turned out so great. She mentioned me over. I noticed that there was a bunch of boys standing around her, and then I realized they were actually standing around the car. I had to smile she looked so smug and I was glad that it wasn't be being stared at for once.

I skipped over to her, "Get it," she said walking over to the driver's door.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" I asked I didn't want Edward getting annoyed.

She shook her head, "they're taking Edwards car." She said.

So I obeyed and hopped in, "Where are we going?" I asked her as she backed out of the spot, making a small group of admirers jump back in alarm, she laughed at this.

"Shopping," she said.

I smiled, "What for?" I asked, I didn't really care I loved shopping.

"For your present of course, you need something to wear tomorrow."

I was too excited to mention the fact that there was an entire room dedicated to clothing.

I was expecting to pull into Port Angeles, but we drove right past the turn of.

I looked up at Rose, "why aren't we going to Port Angeles?" I asked her.

She shrugged, "I thought you might want to see some city lights," she said smiling.

"So, Seattle then?"

"No!" she said a little too quickly. I turned to her shocked but she just smiled and said, "The shops are way too under stocked there, we're going to Portland." She said her smile wider, though her eyes were still narrowed.

I let it go, I didn't want to ruin my mood, but it was ruined anyway as my thoughts turned back towards Mike I was just thinking of ways to give him what he deserves.

"So what do you want for your birthday?" Rose asked suddenly and I saw that we were nearly there. You just had to appreciate the speed this car could do.

"Mike Newton dead," I said still caught up in my thoughts, Rose looked at me alarmed and I laughed.

"Well not exactly dead, maybe just humiliated."

A slight smile formed on her face, "I think I could arrange that," she announced and I laughed again, this should be good.

"But I was talking more along the lines of clothing."

I thought about this seriously and Rose waited patiently. As we pulled up outside a rather large mall I finally turned to her,

"Well it depends," I said as I got out my mobile and dialed Alice's number.

She gave me a questioning look but didn't comment. Alice answered before it even finished ringing.

"Yes April?" she said into the phone.

"I was just wondering," I started smiling at my phrase, I managed to wonder a lot, "what the weather is going to be tomorrow?"

She sounded excited as she told me, "The sun is going to be out, but guess what?" she was almost bursting and I laughed.

"What Alice,"

"Bella isn't grounded anymore, Charlie is letting her of!"

I was excited now. "Does Edward know?"

"Nop, he left before I got to tell him," I think she shrugged, "He will find out soon enough,"

"That's awesome, Alice."

"I know. So I was thinking…"

I cut her of before she could finish her thoughts; no doubt it involved something that Bella would disapprove of.

"I don't think that's a good idea." I told her.

"You don't even know what I was going to say," she complained.

"No I don't, but I'm pretty sure Charlie wants to keep her in the country."

She sighed, "Fine, but we are still going out for your birthday" she told me seriously.

"Ok," I agreed laughing and she hung up.

Rose didn't seem as happy with the news but she didn't comment as we made our way through the shops.

We were soon lost in the thrill of shopping.

…

As we walked through the door later that night, I was hungry and tired Rose had me running around the giant Mall just following her.

I was grateful when Esme handed me some spaghetti, for a vampire she could certainly cook. I devoured it quickly and wandered out into the living room to look over our finds, we had only been going to get an outfit for me but somehow ended up with 5 extra bags.

We had brought 3 different dresses, a pair of new Chanel jeans that were on sale – not that it mattered- some new pyjamas for the sleep over, two pairs of shoes, some new wedges and sketchers, a couple more bags and an assortment of jewellery. I wasn't going to have a hard time choosing just one outfit tomorrow.

Alice came bounding into the living room and picked up a light blue dress with a scoop neck that was pretty short.

"This one is perfect!" she exclaimed, holding it up to me.

"It will go perfectly with your present," she said dramatically winking at me.

I groaned, I thought I knew everything I was getting, Alice obviously had other ideas.

I really hated surprises, I hated the suspense and how everyone knew except me.

She laughed at me, and then Emmett came barging into the room.

"Have fun shopping?" he asked.

I nodded enthusiastically and pointed to the clothes on the ground.

"Did Rose get anything?" he asked nervously.

I laughed, "She practically brought out Victoria's Secret," I told him truthfully.

He eyes light up and he turned running up the stairs.

"Gross!" I remarked trying not to think about where he had gone.

Alice laughed.

Then I turned around and saw a brand new plasma up on the wall.

I quickly grabbed a movie and put it on making sure it was loud enough to block the sounds from above I settled in to watch _The Titanic_.

As usual I fell asleep just as the car scene started.


	9. The best birthday ever

I wake up the next morning to seven very musical voices singing me the happy birthday song. I opened my eyes with a smile on my face and was amazed with the scene I saw. All seven of them stood in front of the sunny window shimmering. It was a beautiful sight and very bright, I had to blink a few times before I actually saw the smiling faces behind the diamonds.

They ended with an extravagant "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU…!"

I couldn't help the feeling that this was going to be the best day I had had in a long time.

I stared at them with wide eyes for what seemed like hours until they started looking nervous and Emmett stepped forward handing me a present wrapped in blue paper. I sat up quickly and the blood rushed to my head, I closed my eyes tight to fight the dizziness when I opened them again Emmett had already pulled the paper of and was handing me a new video game, with a huge smile on his face, I realized it was one that I had been waiting to get for ages but still wasn't available in America. I jumped up and hugged him; he laughed and pulled me away.

"Whoa, hate to see what she does when she sees the big one."

My eyes narrowed suspiciously and Carlisle stepped forward before I could ask. He had a matching blue present in his hand, this one was smaller though.

"It's from Jasper and Esme as well," I smiled up at them and went to take to present; Carlisle quickly unwrapped it and handed it to me. They were certainly pushy; I figured this was because they felt my human reflexes were too slow.

Carlisle handed me a small box and I opened it slowly, inside was a small blue ipod I picked it up and turned it over, engraved on the back was _April _in very elegant handwriting; I figured he had done it himself.

I quickly ran around and hugged all three of them, Jasper stiffened as I wrapped my hands around him,

"Sorry," I said softly, he just attempted a smile.

"Let's get you in the shower," Rose said, crinkling her nose.

I frowned and she laughed, "Well we have to get you into your new clothes."

My grin grew and I skipped into the bathroom to start my morning routine.

When I got out everyone had left my bedroom but, as usual, my clothes were laid out for me on the bed. I quickly got dressed and ran to the staircase, I could see Edward from up here and he looked tense, his jaw was clenched as he talked to someone in a low voice. I moved my head slightly to see who he was talking to,

"He was my best friend Edward," she spoke in a sad voice.

"Bella!" I yelled and ran down the stairs, she looked around just as I reached her, but her greeting was cut of as I hugged her.

She laughed and pulled away,

"Happy birthday April,"

I beamed up at her as she pulled out a small white box.

"What is it?" I asked excitedly,

"Open it and find out,"

I practically snatched it out of her hand and ripped it open.

"It's gorgeous," I said as I took in the silver anklet with a simple love heart charm attached_. _

She smiled at me and I put it on, it went beautifully with the shoes I was wearing, no doubt that was the plan.

"It's my favourite present," I told her.

"Just wait until you see the biggest one," she said.

Again I felt the annoyance build up in me, when was I going to see this so-called best present?

I opened my mouth again, and yet again I was cut of.

"Breakfast time," Esme called out from the kitchen.

I was about to argue but was lured by the smell of French toast, my favourite breakfast.

So I followed the smell into the dining room and Bella and I ate the delicious bread.

"Why aren't you at school today?" I asked her between mouthfuls.

She swallowed hers politely and shrugged saying,

"I wanted to be with my sister for her birthday, I'm going to go with Edward and Alice when the sun disappears later."

I smiled at this and she laughed as a piece of toast fell out my mouth.

I took a gulp of OJ and asked patiently,

"So what's next?"

Immediately the rest of the family reappeared, Alice covering my eyes.

"The best part," Emmett said and I could tell just by his voice that he had a huge grin on his face.

I hadn't even realized I had moved, but before I knew it I felt the grass under my heels and got curious, why were we outside?

As Alice took her hands of my face I had my answer.

There gleaming in the sun was a car. It was a bright blue and I was told that it was a Subaru WRX, 2006 model. This meant nothing to me so I'm going to continue describing it as a bright blue, small, perfect car.

It had a white bow sitting on top of it but it looked out of place so I pulled it off and admired it some more. I ran my hand over the smooth paint job, and turned to the others, who were anxiously waiting for my opinion.

"This is mine?" I asked slowly.

Carlisle nodded, still looking nervous.

My eyes widened.

"You brought this for me?" I asked in disbelief, I was pretty sure this was going overboard.

"We all did," Alice chirped she was the only calm one; she already knew how I would react.

"This is so… AWESOME!" I exploded.

The rest of the family immediately calmed down.

"Do I get to drive it?"

Emmett smiled sheepishly and pulled out a thin card, looking to see Carlisle reaction; he just shook his head. Emmett smiled wider and handed me the card, it was a driver's license with my photo and everything.

"How did you -"

"That's not important," Carlisle cut me of. "You still have to learn," he said looking at me seriously.

I nodded my head, at this point I didn't care I just wanted to jump into my car so this is exactly what I did. I jumped into the driver's seat and saw my ipod was already connected to the stereo. I picked it up and clicked shuffle, immediately one of my favourite songs came on.

It wasn't until I had finished admiring the leather interior that I realised I didn't have the key. Carlisle was already in the passenger seat, though and held out the keys.

"Are you ready?" he asked, he looked as if he wasn't sure himself.

I grabbed the keys shoved them into the ignition and turned them. I was expecting a roar but the car just purred.

"You bet!"

He sighed and looked reluctant as he told me how to get it onto the road.

It wasn't so hard, I had already driven quite a few cars, most of them while I was going through my whole rebellious stage, I wasn't about to admit this to Carlisle though.

Needless to say as we arrived back at the house, after Carlisle decided we needed a break since we had been out all day, he thought I was a very good driver.

He was just commenting on the fact that I knew how to change gears without him telling me how, when I was saved by a certain blonde beauty that was rushing down the porch steps to greet me.

She practically yanked me out of the car and pulled me up to the house,

"You have to see this," she said an evil smile glued to her lips, I knew she was up to no good.

She sat me down in front of the few computers in the living room and clicked on a link.

Immediately I recognised the boy on the screen, blonde hair, and baby faced – Mike.

I looked at her suspiciously and she clicked the play button, apparently it was a video.

The picture zoomed out to reveal a very depressed Mike standing in the middle of a room – that looked strangely like the school gym – in nothing but pink boxers. To say that he was embarrassed is an understatement, he looked absolutely mortified.

Then he began speaking,

"This is a happy birthday message for April Cullen,"

I looked up at Rose again, her grin widened and she shrugged as if to say she didn't know anything, I knew better.

She pointed back at the screen and started laughing; I turned back to and joined in on her laughter.

Mike was now humiliating himself more by doing the most ridiculous dance I have ever seen, it was a cross between the chicken dance and the Macarena.

I was soon in stitches, falling off my chair. Emmett and Jasper soon came in to see why we were giggling so loud, they soon found out and started laughing too.

"How…Why…What…" Jasper tried many times to start a sentence, but couldn't finish more then one word in between fights of laughter.

I heard Alice's laughter from behind us, so that meant she was home from school, I wondered what the time was.

Soon the video finished and all the teenagers of the house were on the floor laughing, except one.

Soon enough the missing link walked through the door, I was surprised to see he wasn't with Bella.

"Where's Bella?" I asked him.

He smirked, "She's having a very educational talk with Charlie,"

"What kind of talk?" I asked.

But he was already walking out the room; I looked to Alice for an answer she just shook her head still laughing,

"You don't want to know"

I dropped the subject as I heard Edward yell out to his mother,

"Esme, Bella and I are going to use the present you got her next weekend."

"Oh that's wonderful Edward, Renee will love it."

"Who's Renee?" I asked when I got to the kitchen where Esme was preparing my dinner.

"Bella's mum," Edward told me.

"Oh, and what was the present?" I asked trying to peek at the delicious looking food Esme was working on.

"Plane tickets," Esme said and she shooed me out of the kitchen. "Now wait in the living room, your going to ruin the surprise."

I groaned, "More surprises?"

She just smiled and pointed out the door.

I frowned and followed her pointing finger.

I didn't complain too much I knew that as much as I hated the suspense, I loved the surprise.

Edward followed me out,

"Where are you going?" I asked him when as we both sat down on the couch.

"To visit Renee in -"

He stopped half way and his whole body went rigid.

"Oh no," I heard Alice say,

I looked at her and when I turned back to Edward he had already disappeared.

"Where did he go?" I asked Alice.

"To stop Bella," She said and I noticed that she was incredibly tense as well.

"What she going to do?" I asked carefully.

"I don't know exactly," she said and I could see how much pain it caused her to utter those words.

Before I could ask anymore Emmett was sitting next to me waving my new game in my face,

"Want a game?" he asked.

"You're on," I told him, though I already knew he would win.

Surprisingly I was winning though; I guessed Emmett wasn't trying as hard.

After a while Edward came back through the door he still looked tense, I stole a glance at Alice, she was calm now designing more clothes on her computer, I guessed that Edward had succeeded in stopping Bella from whatever she was attempting to do.

Esme called announcing dinner was ready. It was lasagne another one of my favourite, I was amazed that they knew this much about me I didn't remember telling them half this stuff - though with a mouth like mine it was possible.

I was amused and stunned at the fact that the rest of the family sat down around me with a plate of their own, I looked around and had to laugh Esme and Carlisle both looked like they were trying to be pleasant, Edward and Jasper were trying to hide their looks of distaste, and as my eyes landed on Rose and Emmett I had to hold back more laughter, their faces were openly filled with great disgust, Alice hadn't even bothered to sit at the table she already knew that I was going to object.

"You don't have to do this guys," I told them biting my lip to stop myself from giggling.

Jasper and Edward looked unsure, Rose and Emmett immediately pushed it away.

Esme gave them a warning look.

"Seriously, I don't want you to,"

At this they all pushed away there plates.

Satisfied I started eating, I didn't realise how hungry I was until I had finished both my plate and Emmett's and then I figured I should say something since everyone was still watching me.

"So, what's it taste like?"

They all looked at me with puzzled expressions.

"Eating food, I mean,"

Emmett smirked,

"Like eating a mud pie,"

"Ew!" I exclaimed,

"Exactly," said Rose nodding.

I looked down at the table as I tried to think of another subject, I wanted to ask Edward what was going on between him and Bella but I knew from his look this afternoon that it wasn't a good idea, then I remembered the birthday present that had been promised to me.

"So when do I see Charlie?" I looked up to assess Edwards's reaction.

He was smiling, though Carlisle looked anxious; it was like he thought I was going to throw myself at my father or something, which for any other teenager would be completely normal behaviour.

"Tomorrow," he said earnestly.

I pouted and he looked sorry,

"Are you sure?" I asked still doubting that he was letting this happen.

"I already promised didn't I?"

I nodded slowly looking for something in his face to contradict his words but he looked sincere.

"But I have something for you," he said grinning as he handing me a photo.

I looked at down at the photo as I held it in my grasps.

It was a picture of a small girl standing next to a man on a beach. I knew who the girl was immediately chocolate eyes, brown hair – Bella. It was the man, who had my attention; he had curly brown hair, the same colour as Bella's. I also noticed that they both stood in the same position, awkwardly wrapped an arm around each other.

"Where did you get his?" I asked suspiciously.

"Bella's room." He said calmly.

I laughed, "Is this Charlie?" I asked, looking back up at him.

He nodded, "I felt you needed to see him before so you didn't stare at him all night, and by the way your staring at that picture I was right,"

I shot him a death stare and went back to studying the picture; he was right though I couldn't tear my eyes away.

"Well," Esme spoke up, "I think its time for bed"

I couldn't help but smile, Esme fit the mother role so well it was a shame that she missed out on having kids, though I guess she ended up with more then enough. It was funny to think she was probably a better mother then mine.

Don't get me wrong, my mother was great she just didn't have the time to be a proper mum we were constantly travelling so I never got into the whole family feel, she claimed that travelling was what she wanted to do and having a kid wasn't going to stop her. Once my mother had her mind set on something, nothing stopped her; I guess I got that from her.

It was strange to think that I felt more comfortable in this house full of vampires then I was in the many places me and mum had stayed in, though of course none of these vampires were trying to get onto my mother while I tried to sleep.

I sighed as I felt fatigue set over me, why was it that they seemed to know what I needed before I did?

"You promise tomorrow?" I asked Edward one last time.

He nodded again, "Yes, I promise."

I finally decided I could trust him so I said goodnight to everyone and stumbled up to my bed, luckily someone had turned my heater on.

I got under the sheets and pulled out the dew photos I had manage to bring with me, as they were in my purse at the time, I flicked through the first few of my mother and a few friends I had met – I didn't want to ruin my non crying streak for today – and got to the one I wanted, it was a picture of me when I was quite young maybe three or four, and I held it up to the one of Bella and Charlie.

We looked completely different, I didn't look uncomfortable at all, I knew even at that age I was fairly confident, in the picture I had a white hoody pulled over my hair, with only a few curls coming out the side, my tiny finger was brought up to my mouth as if I was telling someone to be quiet, which was probably the case. I was saddened to see that they weren't any similarities between us, but then as my eyes started drooping I noticed that I had the same wide eyes and bouncy curls as them and I smiled as I eventually drifted of to sleep.

This was definitely my best birthday ever. Though I knew tomorrow would be the best day of my life so far.

**A/N I sorry about these little notes at the bottom, feel free to ignore them but I just wanted to let you know that if u wanted to know about anything you can review me and ask or if your curious about April's looks there is the photo she looks at toward the end on my profile, along with her car and the anklet Bella gave her, just in case u wanted to know… hope your having as much fun reading as I m writing and feel free to review it makes me feel like I'm doing a good job :D**

**Xoxo**


	10. Meeting Charlie

My heart was hammering as we sat outside Charlie's house in Edwards Volvo - he had asked me if I wanted to drive my car but I didn't think that was the best idea as I hadn't stopped shaking since Alice came running towards the car, she was just giving me some movies to watch but Edward had told her off when he noticed my heart stopping –

"Are you sure you're ready?" he asked for what seemed like the tenth time in five minutes.

I nodded, of course I was ready.

"You don't have to do this," he said, as he took in my expression.

"Are you crazy?" I asked, not sure what else to say, of course I had to do this if I didn't I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get another chance any time soon.

He scrutinized me for a while longer, then sighed,

"Ok then lets go."

He got out the door pulling my bag with him. I got out, before he could change his mind, and started to walk up the steps leading to the door.

I wasn't sure what to do now I had a sudden urge to yell out, 'I'm home' but I figured that wouldn't be in my best interests.

Luckily Edward was by my side, with my pillow and bag in his hands, knocking on the door.

I heard a low voice grumbling and then the door flew open and an apprehensive Bella was smiling at us.

Edward pulled her in for a hug and whispered something in her ear, it must have been reassuring because she looked more relaxed as she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house.

I held my breath as she pulled me into the living room, I didn't know what I was expecting and started to get dizzy,

"Breath," Edward blew into my ear.

I took a deep breath and turned my attention to the figure sitting on the couch.

I blew it out in a relief as I noticed he wasn't so intimidating, even when he critically looked over at Edward – who still had one arm around Bella- , he was simply uncomfortable.

"Good evening Charlie," Edward said pleasantly, I wondered how he could be so calm when Charlie's thoughts were obviously far from that.

Charlie was eyeing of the pillow and bag, which was still under Edwards's arms, he seemed to think Edward had the idea of staying the night and the look on his face was priceless.

I remembered on while I was packing this morning Edward had been at my side while I was trying to get rid of the knot in my stomach Edward had been telling me various warnings, in between "Don't hug him or anything," and "He doesn't talk much, don't take it personally," he had told me,

"Oh, and he doesn't like me very much so don't take it personally."

"Why?" I had asked, wondering why he hadn't managed to charm Charlie the way he did with everyone else.

He seemed tense as he answered, "He has his reasons and I don't disagree with his thoughts,"

When I still looked at him questioningly he sighed saying, "His a father, you know what they're like,"

I had known he didn't mean to say it, he was distracted, though I still felt the knot work it way up to my throat. I had meant to smile and say I knew what he meant, but instead a single tear fell from my eye. I attempted to wipe it away before he noticed but he was too quick and his eyes widened with the shock of what he said, then he pulled me into a hug.

"I am so sorry April, I didn't mean it."

I took a deep breath to calm myself down, "It's ok, I will know soon enough right?"

He didn't say a thing but pulled me closer, "You will always have us,"

I figured that would have to do, for now.

I was brought back to reality by Edward gentle nudge in my shoulder, I looked up at him but he was still looking down at Charlie, then I remembered the situation.

"Hi," I said to break the tension, "I'm April Cullen, Edward's sister,"

He looked up at me then and I immediately felt self conscious as I remembered how much he liked Alice.

He seemed to approve though and stood up looking even more uncomfortable. I wondered for a blissful minute if Bella had decided to tell him our connection but I knew as he held out his hand formally this wasn't the case, he was just awkward naturally.

I shock his hand flimsily, as mine was still shaking, and managed a small smile.

"So who's winning?" I asked him pointing to the TV.

I didn't understand half of what he said, but I was content to watch the game with him. Bella wandered into the kitchen to finish dinner Edward stayed behind presumably to keep an eye on him, I resented this fact it wasn't as if I couldn't control myself.

Soon enough Bella called us to say dinner was ready again Edward followed us and was served a plate as well. This time I kept my mouth shut, though Charlie seemed surprised that he was joining us.

Without the game as I distraction I continued to ask Charlie all sorts of questions, I wanted to know as much as possible, he seemed amused by my curiosity, Bella seemed worried and Edward just looked slightly annoyed.

As I started eating my questions died down and all three in my company seemed relaxed, that is until Charlie started speaking again,

"Billy invited me down to La Push tonight, there's going to be a bon fire, I was wondering if you girls wanted to come with me?"

I noticed how he left Edward out of this and I saw him tense in response, though he wasn't the only one Bella looked wound up as well.

"I think we will just stay here and watch some movies dad," Bella replied attempting a smile, it looked more like a grimace.

"Are you sure Bells? I know Jacob really misses you,"

Edward clenched his teeth together, Bella looked torn.

"I'm sure dad," she said in a little voice.

Charlie sighed and stood up,

"Ok well I'm going to leave soon, make sure you have fun,"

He smiled at me then and I couldn't help but smile back,

"Nice meeting you April,"

"You to Chief Swan,"

He didn't know how absolutely fabulous it was meeting him. Though it still sounded weird calling him Chief Swan I longed to call him dad, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have gone to well. So instead I watched him walk out the door.

Edward must have seen my face because his features had changed when I turned back to him.

"Well I think that went well," he said with sympathy in his eyes.

"You mean I managed to behave myself?" I scoffed.

"Yes, I'm quite proud of you," he said sincerely, did he have to look at me like that?

I stared at him with annoyance; it wasn't like I was five and had stayed out of the cookie jar.

Bella was the one to break the silence,

"How come you didn't drive your brand new car over, April?"

This brought a smile to my face,

"Is that jealous that I hear?" I asked her.

Her face went red and Edward started smiling as well,

"As I remember it, Bella, you made it perfectly clear that you didn't want me to buy you a car,"

"I don't," She said defiantly, "but I hardly think it's fair that you push all these things onto a little girl, just like you seem to with me,"

Edward was smirking now, "Yes, but unlike you she likes -"

"I'm not little!" I cut him off heatedly.

They both looked stunned for a second and stared at me, and then they broke out in laughter.

"No, your very grown up and mature," Edward said reaching over to ruffle my hair, I swatted him away and got up stomping into the lounge room.

Then I figured I had nothing to do so I stood there fuming for a few seconds until Edward and Bella walked up behind me,

"Want to watch a movie?" she asked picking up one she knew I couldn't resist.

"Ok," I said giving in to her,

So we sat down on the lounge and watched the movie and were soon lost in it.

At the end of the movie Edward announced that he was going home, he got up hugging me and kissing Bella, I noticed the way Bella leaned into it more, she seemed to be encouraging him, but Edward pulled away soon after. I wondered what it would be like falling for a mythical creature, my thoughts were cut short as I heard Edward whisper, "Behave,"

At first I thought he was talking to me and I was about to object when I saw that Bella was matching an identical pout to mine, she nodded and Edward looked relieved as he walked out the door.

As soon as I heard him driving off I turned to Bella,

"What did he mean, 'behave'?" I asked her,

She pouted again, "He doesn't want me down at La Push," Bella's said, I could tell she wasn't happy with this,

"What La Push?" I asked I had heard some kids talking about it at school but I didn't really care, until now.

"It's the reservation just outside of Forks," Bella told me,

"What's down there?" I asked I couldn't understand why Edward would try to keep her away from there.

"Jacob Black," She said, the longing was evident on her face.

"Who's he?" I asked her, still confused.

"They haven't told you?"

I shook my head.

"Well you know how Edward left me last year?" she asked slowly.

I nodded this time, Alice had told me the story, how Edward had left Bella for her own good and then she saw Bella die but soon found out the truth by that time though it was too late Edward had found out so they traveled over to Italy to save him, bringing us back to my story.

"Well, while he was gone Jacob and I became… very close" I could see her lost in memories.

"So Edward doesn't like him because of the closeness?" I asked, I wondered how close they had actually gotten.

"It's a bit more then that," she said and again I saw the pain cross her face.

I didn't ask her to elaborate; instead I picked up the next movie,

"Popcorn?" I asked her once it was on, she looked grateful to be of the subject.

I didn't want to push her but I still wanted to know more, maybe I could ask Alice she always told me when I asked.

The rest of the night was spent stuffing ourselves with various junk foods and crying as we watched the best romance movies.

Eventually, I fell asleep on the lounge on the lounge. I knew I should have felt content after a wonderful birthday, but I still felt as if something was missing and I couldn't shake the feeling as I feel into a restless sleep.


	11. Missing Bella

I couldn't believe how boring it had been without Bella around for the weekend, I felt that I was missing out on the little time I had with her and it bugged me. Why should Edward get to hog her, his going to have her for eternity?

So I was very excited to know that Bella was coming back today, I had bouncing around the house for at least the next hour – much to Emmett's amusement.

I bounced over to Alice, who was sitting anxiously on the stairs,

"When are they getting back?"

It was a question that I had been asking all day, and about 5 times in the last ten minutes. I could see it was irritating her but she didn't mention,

"Soon," she said instead.

"How soon?" I asked, getting restless.

"Soonish," she said.

I frowned it wasn't like Alice not to be accurate, something was troubling her I could tell by the way she held her hands up to her face, like she was concentrating. I decided to leave her to it.

Instead I went to find Esme; I was looking for a way to pass the time.

I found her in the garden, pulling up weeds; I sat down on the porch watching her, with my legs folded and my head on my knuckles.

"What's bothering you, dear?" she asked after a while,

I sighed, "Well Edward and Bella aren't back yet, and Alice is acting weird and Rose and Emmett went hunting and he broke the Xbox this morning so now I'm bored," I said dramatically.

She smiled slightly at my melodramatics,

"Well you could help me," She said gesturing to where she was kneeling on the ground.

I scrunched up my nose; gardening wasn't exactly entertaining for me and she looked like she was doing a fine job, she was ripping out weeds at top speed, they didn't stand a chance.

"Or you were complaining about your homework load the other day, why don't you get Carlisle to help you?" she finished when she saw my face.

I thought about this, I was definitely behind in Spanish and I had been meaning to ask him for help anyway.

"Hmm, ok I think I will," I said standing up and walking towards the door, "Thanks Esme," I called over my shoulder as I walked through the door.

"Anytime dear," I smiled; she was so nice it was hard to be angry at her.

So I made my way up to Carlisle's study, intending to get homework done. I was only halfway up the stair, however, when I heard the front door open and turned around. Edward was standing in the doorway, a disgruntled look on his face. I run back down the stairs and stopped in front of him.

I noticed that Bella wasn't standing besides him. I looked around him to check if she was still in the car, which was highly unlikely with Edward around. When I saw that she was nowhere to be found.

"Where is she?" I demanded.

"At Charlie's," he told me, he seemed irritated.

"What happened?" Alice asked, coming up behind me.

This was very strange, why was Alice asking what happened? Something was definitely going on here.

"The mongrel called," He said, almost growling.

"What did he want?" Alice asked.

This was getting weird, how did Alice not know all this already, and why the hell hadn't I seen Bella yet.

"To ask if she was going to school tomorrow,"

Comprehension fell over Alice's face; well at least she was satisfied now it still didn't help me.

"Well is she?" I asked, anxious about when I got to see her again.

"Of course she is," He said to me, his mouth pulled back over his teeth. It was fairly intimidating, but I didn't want him to know that.

"I was only asking," I yelled at him, and stormed of up the stairs.

It was only once I was in my room, looking around for something to do and saw the stack of homework waiting for me, that I remember what I had been planning to do before Edward rudely interrupted me.

So I picked up the huge stack and headed for Carlisle's study.

Carlisle called me in just as I was contemplating whether I should knock or not. I walked in and dropped the pile on his desk,

"I need help," I said, glancing down worried about how I was supposed to finish it all, "Please," I added as I noticed he didn't say anything.

He chuckled lightly, "Yes, I can see that, why haven't you asked anyone else in the house?" he asked kindly, I wondered if I was disturbing him but he looked as if he was just mildly curious.

"I tried," I told him truthfully.

I had tried on many occasions, Emmett and Alice were no help as I soon got distracted and ended up shopping or playing games, Esme was always busy, Jasper had given up after I had become increasingly frustrated when I couldn't figure out a math's problem and had aimed most of it at him – that wasn't pretty – Rose had flat out refused after she seen how irritated Edward was with my slow work, which only left Carlisle.

"You're the last one," I told him, shrugging.

He nodded, "Well we best get started, I see that Spanish is due tomorrow." I cringed and sat down on the seat opposite him as he explained to me the different sentence structures.

After I got sent to work on my Modern history essay, I heard Edward leave the house again, no doubt to spend the night with Bella.

"Why was Edward so grumpy before?" I asked, while I tried to think of an explanation for anarchy.

"It seems Bella got a very strange phone call this evening," Carlisle told me quietly.

"From the mongrel?" I asked him, looking up in time to see him wince,

"Sorry," I apologized, "That's just what Edward said,"

"I know," Carlisle said sighing, "and I wish my children would refrain from using such negative phrasing,"

I smiled I had heard quite a few come out of Emmett's mouth today, courtesy of a broken Xbox.

"So who was it?" I asked genuinely curious.

"Jacob Black," he told me.

"Jacob?" I asked. He seemed to be mentioned quite a lot lately.

Carlisle seemed surprised that I recognized the name but he nodded.

"Edward doesn't like him very much," I mused, "I wonder what's between Bella and Jacob to make him so jealous?"

I hadn't really expected an answer but Carlisle replied anyway,

"It's a bit more then that, though I'm sure that's part of it."

"What do you mean?" I asked now more interested in the conversation then more homework, this held my attention longer then homework ever had.

Carlisle seemed to study me for a second, deciding how much to tell me I presumed.

"Well the people down at the reservation don't… get along with our family; there has been some… misunderstanding in the past."

I bit my lip as I tried to interpret this information; it wasn't making much sense at the moment.

"You better get to work on that essay though, it's due on Tuesday,"

I sighed as I realized I had only written two sentences and got to work, my brow crinkling in concentration.

After another couple of hours, when my eyes wouldn't focus anymore, I crawled into bed content that my homework pile was considerably smaller.

The next morning was spent in a rush as I tried to get ready as fast as I could, it wasn't easy seeing as I only had half an hour. My alarm clock had decided to go off an hour later then usual so that meant my shower was cut short.

"Aren't you ready yet?" Alice called up the stairs.

"Yes," I replied, even though I wasn't I pulled my shirt over my head and grabbed my shoes, putting them on as I hopped down the stairs.

Alice was at the bottom of the stairs, she looked amused as I remembered I needed a jacket. I turned around to go back up the stairs, but Esme was already waiting for me with my jacket, school books and toast in her hands.

"Thank you," I breathed.

She laughed, kissing me on the top of my head as I threw the jacket around my shoulders.

I shoved the toast down as we got into my car.

I was psyched to be able to drive my car to school, Carlisle finally letting Alice watch me instead of his careful eyes as long as I promised not to be reckless, I didn't know what they expected me to do and I was quite sure they were quite capable of preventing an accident.

Today I was in a rush though, so I put my foot down. Alice raised her eyebrows at me and I slowed down sighing.

"How late are we going to be?" I asked her.

"The bell just went," She told me, I cringed I was pretty sure my Math's teacher would be as understanding with my alarm as I had been.

"Don't worry I have it under control," She told me grinning.

Having a vampire sister certainly had its advantages.

I wondered what story she had made up this time, I remembered the last time we turned up late she had told them Carlisle needed help down at the hospital so that excuse was out.

My musings were cut short with as a loud rumble flew past my ear at top speed.

I shouted quite a few swear words I had learnt from Emmett out the window though I'm pretty sure the driver didn't hear me, him and his stupid motorbike had already disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

We eventually pulled up next to Edwards Volvo; many students were still loitering around and turned to admire my car. I smiled; I had washed it until it was shining yesterday while I was trying to pass time, now it seemed to pay off.

I saw some of my followers – more like stalkers – walking towards me so I walked quickly towards the office.

The receptionist glanced up at me as I walked through the door; she shook her head and started writing me out a late note,

"Another family emergency I assume," she said skeptically.

I wasn't sure what to say, but at that moment Alice skipped through the door handing her a piece of paper.

"Sorry we are late, but our brother was having some problems and needed our help."

It was true Emmett had been complaining all morning that Rose wouldn't talk to him and wanted us to tell him why, it was something that happened often and had turned into a game, Emmett would think of something that would calm Rose down and come running to Alice where she would proceed to tell him whether it would work or not, eventually – like what had happened this morning – he would come running to me for help. This morning I didn't have time though and I thought about how he would get through the day, I had to cover my giggle with a cough.

"Not a problem dear, just get your teachers to sign this," she told us handing us a pink slip each.

I grabbed it, sneering at her, sure she was charmed by the Cullens – except me, who I'm sure she felt more then dislike for – but she didn't know why and I'm had to hide another giggle when I thought about she would react if she found out.

Unfortunately, Alice wasn't in my math class so my teacher wasn't as understanding and gave me detention. Vanessa was though and she was nearly jumping out of her seat when she saw me, I made my way towards her,

"What?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her on her seat.

"I've got a date to the dance," She whispered back, well I assumed she was trying to whisper, her voice was several octaves higher then what she was aiming for.

"Sam Robertson,"

I smiled, at least someone was getting their happily ever after.

"I told you he liked you,"

"Yes, I couldn't have done it without you, thank you," She squeaked, hugging me, and nearly knocking me of my chair in the process.

The teacher looked over at us disapprovingly, I pulled her of me and pulled out my books writing down the notes already on the board, I didn't need another detention, though of course my cranky, stupid teacher did give me another one.

This teacher was definitely uptight, I decided as I left the classroom, maybe if she had one good night…

She had given me the next week worth of afternoon detentions, just because I forgot to do her stupid homework last night.

My grumblings stopped as I saw Bella walking towards the cafeteria, with Edward as usual. I immediately started running towards her.

"Bella!" I shouted, causing more stares, which in turn caused Bella to blush. Soon enough though her face was hidden as I pulled her in for a hug,

"I missed you so much!"

She laughed as I pulled away studying her,

"I was only gone for three days," She said laughing.

Though it wasn't real laughter, I could see the worry in her face, the fear in her eyes.

"What did you do to her?" I demanded of Edward, he looked down at me with a confused expression, I could tell he was trying to read my mind. Then the all-to-familiar frustration took over his face.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked me angrily.

"I'm talking about the fact that Bella looks like she's seen a monster,"

"Not far from it," Edward said under his breath, Bella shot him a hurt look.

"Doesn't she know what happened Saturday night?" She asked him; obviously I was supposed to know something.

Edward shook his head, "She was asleep,"  
Bella looked horrified, "They left here alone in the house?"

"No, Esme was watching her,"

Now I was really irritated what was I missing out on?

"What the hell happened Saturday night?" I yelled in frustration.

Edward sighed, "I really can't keep anything from you two, can I?"

Then he caught my expression, which was still frozen in anger, I really didn't like being left in the dark.

"Can we at least wait until later?" he asked looking pointedly at the crowd of people stopping to see why I was yelling.

"Fine!" I said, I was not going to forget it.

"Can we go eat now?" He asked innocently,

I snorted; I certainly hoped he wasn't going to eat, though I was contemplating shoving some cafeteria food in his mouth. He really got on my nerves; maybe I could just get Emmett onto him when we got home. I smiled slightly when I realized just how much of a family we sounded like.

Edward looked down at me curiously, I knew wishing he could read my mind again and this made me smile more.


	12. Getting answers

I felt bad for thinking of ways to hurt Edward as we sat silently at our usual cafeteria table. The way he looked at Bella, and she stared back, assured me that it had been him who had caused so much pain. It was something I had known since I first saw them together, there was no way he could hurt her in any way.

So that still left the question, why was she so worked up? I saw her jump again as Mike sat in the seat next to me; Edward glared at him and got out of his seat, pulling Bella with him. Mike watched them go then pulled his seat closer to mine. Why didn't they take me with them? I thought annoyed.

"Hey April," he said, then without waiting for me to answer, "Do you why that Jacob kid was talking to Bella and your brother this morning?"

His question took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting it.

"Jacob?" I questioned out loud, why was he here? Is that what had distressed Bella?

"Yeah, I guess he came to see Edward, it looked pretty intense," He told me, watching me closely. I saw over his shoulder a group of his friends were waiting eagerly, I had seen those faces on Emmett and Jasper before, it usually indicated a bet was involved, I sighed.

"Nop, no idea," His face fell, "Look I gotta go," I said getting up and grabbing my things. I couldn't wait any longer, now I really needed to know what was going on.

I walked in the direction that Edward had taken Bella, I ended up outside in the car park.

I still couldn't find them, but I saw my gleaming car and decided they could find me. I walked up to my car, getting in and grabbing my ipod; I had just put my favourite song on, when Alice was sitting next to me,

"Alice," I sighed, "Could you please tell me what is going on,"

"I don't know if I should," she said, looking at me worriedly.

"Why? I'm part of the family, remember, so shouldn't that mean that I'm suppose to know when most of my family leaves me for god knows what reason?"

I didn't mean to sound so angry, but I was annoyed and a little upset I felt left out and I was angry at myself, it was such a childish thought.

"I promise it was a good reason," She said hoping that would put me at ease. I hoped she knew me better then that, I raised my eyebrows.

Now it was her turn to sigh, "We were chasing a vampire that has a grudge against Bella, that's why Edward took her to see Renee this weekend."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" I asked, as shocked at both the information and the fact that she actually told me.

Alice shrugged, "We didn't want you to worry,"

"Should I be?" I asked her, looking at her already worried.

She gave me a hurt look; I took that as a no.

"Then why did Edward take Bella -"

"In case you've forgotten, Edward tends to overact, we had it perfectly under control…"  
She looked up at me again, trying to gorge my reactions. I had already pulled a mask of interest over my face though.

"Had?" I asked, noticing the past tense and the way she trailed of.

"Well we almost had her, until she went over the boundary line and we were forced to stop the chase. One of the Quileute boys lost his temper and as usual Emmett reacted, which started Rose of," she rolled her eyes as she said this, "It was lucky Carlisle and Jasper were there to settle things down." I saw the smug tone in her voice as she stated this, she was proud that her husband was neither controlling or bad-tempered.

"So… she got away?" I said slowly.

"Yes," She said angerily, "But we will be ready next time and hopefully so will the - "

She broke of then and I looked at her and she looked guilty, like she had said too much. Then the bell went I grabbed my things and turned to Alice again, she looked happy, "Theres a sale on this afternoon, wanna go shopping?"

I smiled, but she was out the door before I nodded, she already knew my answer.

I thought that maybe I had imagined the uncertainty I had seen a moment ago, my mind had a history of being overactive.

I walked to class slowly, getting lost in one of my favourite daydreams, it was way more interesting then 6th period Modern.

….

A few days later I was sitting in the passenger seat on our way to the shopping trip, that had been rearranged quite a few time. Alice was driving my car, thanks to Carlisle orders – he didn't think I was up to the drive. I noticed that she, like Rosalie, didn't turn of into Seattle, but continued to drive to Portland instead, what did they have against the place?

The conversation had drifted, and Alice seemed to be concentrating on the road – something I knew to be unnecessary – I decided it disgard that fact, focusing on another question, one that Edward had been avoided for days.

"What was Jacob Black doing at Forks High on monday?" I asked, watching her expression closely.

She continued watching the road, "He wanted to speak to Edward," she said, as if it wasn't important.

"What about?" I asked, getting excited, that I was finally getting answers.

She shrugged, off-handishly.

"Edward doesn't want you to tell me," I guessed.

"no, I just don't know," She said, and I thought I saw her cringe a little, though I couldn't be sure as she quickly covered it up with a smile.

I raised my eyebrows at her, skeptically.

"I don't see everything April," she said sounding annoyed.

I frowned, this wasn't like Alice.

We were quiet after that until we pulled into the huge carpark.

I grabbed my handbag and climbed out of the car, Alice had parked in the shade as it the sun had made an appearance. I was glad the windows in my car were tinted, though this was probably the point anyway.

"So where to first?" I asked, smiling at my excited sister.

"ooohhh, theres a new store that just opened," She said, grabbing me and pulling me along. So our extravagent shopping trip began.

Three hours, 15 shops and loads of shopping bags later, we got out the car and, with me stumbling, made our way to the front door. Rose was waiting for us behind the door and demanded we show her what we brought, as she scoffed at my choice in shoes - she preferred high heels, while I knew that to be a bad idea.

I was glad that I went with Alice today. Shopping with Rose was not an all together unpleasant event, it was more annoying, she tended to have more choice in what I brought, meaning she pretty much took over, though that was just Rosalie. She liked to be in control, for everything to revolve around her.

I know I make her out to be some kind of self-absorbed snob, but I knew deep down she cared for others as well, especially Emmett. That's why they were the perfect couple, he brought her back down to Earth.

"Where's Edward?" Alice's voice brought me back to the present, where Rose was now admiring a pair of jeans I had a feeling weren't going to end up in my closet.

"Probably at Bella's," Rosalie told her, scowling.

It was a known fact that Rose disliked my sister, though I still wondered why.

"I hope he isnt reconsidering his hunting trip, next weekend just because he thinks Bella will do another runner, I'm perfectly capable of…" Alice ramblings faded as she climbed up the stairs, carrying our bags along with her.

I laughed at Alice, walking over to the sofa with Rose, they had been describing Bella's trip to La Push – which Edward was evidently not happy about – as a 'runner' since it happened a few days ago. I knew that my family didn't exactly approve of the reservation, but I thought that this was pushing it. As usual though, I didn't know the full story, I was about to ask Rosalie about it and saw she still had a hard look on her face,

"Rose?" I asked, as we sat down, she looked at me expectantly, "You like me don't you?"

Her face softened with this unexpectated question, "Of course," She replied nodding.

"and would this change if I was to fall in love with someone close to you?" I asked her, she looked at me strangely but shook her head.

"even if this person was a vampire?" I asked her.

She looked worried now.

"April, if you tell me that your falling in love with - "

She stopped talking as my laughter cut her off, I had realised just how bad that must have sounded.

"No way, that's not what I meant." I told her sincerely, she still looked worried.

"then what did you mean?"

I sighed, "I'm just trying to understand why you seem to have such a problem with Bella, it can't be because she's human because I am too and you seem to get along with me just fine and if its not because of her being in love with Edward I'm out of ideas."

I looked at her, waiting for her to answer, comprehension had dawned as I started talking.

"Oh, that…" She said sadly, "I guess I havent been the nicest have i?"

That was an understatement, it was a bit more then just 'not nice'.

I continued looking at her, waiting for more.

"I'm sorry if I have offended you, April, it's true that I have taken to you more, I guess it is just because you seem to make better choices involving your future."

"Yer, living with vampires, that was a great choice wasn't it." I said under my breath, then looked up at Rosalie, "It's not me you should be apologizing to though, I think you should talk to Bella, I'm sure she would appreciate a bit more insight."

She smiled at me, "Your too good for this family, you know," she said hugging me.

I broke away as Esme finished my dinner, I was starving, Alice seemed to forget about me having to eat when shopping was involved.

Luckily Esme had made me a rather big dinner, consisting of a big piece of steak, a pile of vegies and mash potato. I was amazed that she could cook this good when she couldn't taste it. When I made anything, I needed at least 5 different taste tests; though these were usually just because I was hungry.

I soon devoured my huge plate, leaving the carrots behind. Esme looked at me disapprovingly as I took my plate into the kitchen,

I heard Emmett in the living room as he shouted out, "Good girls eat their carrots,"

"Hypercrite," I said under my breath, "I'm pretty sure you haven't been a good girl either, has Rose forgiven you yet?"

Esme smiled and I heard Emmett turn the game he was playing off.

"Oh no!" I said my eyes widening, I knew what was coming.

"You're gunna pay for that," Emmett said, growling and the game began.

It was a game me and Emmett had made up on one of those days, when I was bored out of my mind. It wasn't really a game it was pretty much me trying to get to Rose before Emmett got to me. You can probably see who would win already. It was then that I remembered I still needed to get my comumptance. I smiled a plan already forming.

"Rose!" I heard Alice call from up stairs. I knew she was already well aware of my plan, I also knew this was my chance to both win and get my revenge.

"Do you know what Emmett is planning to do?"

I heard Emmett freeze in the next room and ran out of the kitchen, across the living room and up the stairs while I still had my chance.

"What?" Rose asked suspiciously, getting to Alice's room at the same time as me.

'About time' Alice mouthed to me, then she turned to Rose.

"Well you know that hot actress?" She asked, pretending to be thinking,

"Angelina Jolie?" Rose replied, anger flashing across her face.

"No, not her," Alice said, dismissing it with her hand, "she was on that show you were watching,"

"Mishca Barton?" Rose replied, confused now.

"Umm… no maybe it wasn't really a show, I don't know I just saw her on TV, well Emmett did… and well… he thought it would be a good idea to…"

"Oh," I said slapping my head dramatically, "You mean that documentry Rose was watching on slutty heiresses last night?"

"Yes that's the one, the one with P - "

There was a loud bang downstairs, but that was drowned out with Rose's yelling,

"EMMETT WAS GOING TO 'DO' PARIS HILTON??"

"That's what I saw," Alice said though Rose didn't hear her as she followed Emmett, leaving another big hole in the wall.

"Esme not going to be happy about that," Alice sighed, then she looked at me and we both fell into a fit of giggles.

After we had calmed down enough to talk, I started to worry What if this broke them up? What if Emmett never spoke to me again?

I looked up at Alice for answers.

"Are…are they going to be alright?"

Alice laughed, "Rose and Emmett, pfft they fight all the time, you should see what Rose wishes she could do, or should I say who, they will be back to normal in three days."

"Are you - "

"Of course I'm sure April, now do you want to see my new car or not?"

My eyes widened, "You got a new car!" I asked in surprise.

She was nodded quickly and then she picked me up and ran me down to the garage, setting me down in front of a yellow car.

I glowered at her, "I'm perfectly capable of walking you know?"

"Your way too slow," She said dismissively.

I just shook my head, my family…

Then I took the time to look at the car, I noticed it was a porshe. Probably the one Alice has been complaining about since Italy. It was rather small, but looked like it had a lot of power, very Aliceish.

"What did you have to do to get this?" I asked as Alice looked at it lovingly.

"Kidnap Bella," She said, still admiring the yellow vehicle.

These were definitly words to worry over.

"Why?" I asked horrified.

"So she doesn't escape again," Alice said, like I should know this already.

"To La Push you mean?" I asked

"Yes" Alice replied.

I couldn't believe they were taking such drastic measures, well Edward was taking such drastic measure, this definitly seemed to be taking it too far.

"What's she going to do trip over on the beach and drown?" I asked, my temper flaring.

I dark look crossed Alice's face, "It's a possibility," Alice said, defensively.

"I doubt that you wouldn't see that one coming, Alice."

She looked as if she was going to retort but decided against it, instead turning her back and racing out the door.

I stood there stunned for a minute, it all rushing through my head. I was pretty sure this was crossing the line, you don't just kidnap your girlfriend because to keep her away from a certain boy was taking jealousy too far. Though that was Edward, as Alice had pointed out, he was always taking things too far, especially when it involved Bella, I wondered sometimes if he took it too far. I made my way up the stairs and bed. However, if I knew Bella, this wouls not stop her, she would find a way around Edward.

I didn't know so much about Alice, she could be very annoying and would not leave her alone. I wondered why she was going along with it, i knew it to be more then just the Porshe, it was something about the way the dark look appeared on her face whenever I mentioned the Quilete tribe, how she stopped talking almost as if she knew she would say too much.

I lay in bed, already showered, and knew that I wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. I needed to talk to Bella, I needed answers.

…

I lay in bed on Thursday night, thinking about how angry Bella had been when she found out that Alice had kidnapped her due to the fact that Edward and the rest of the boys, and Esme, had gone hunting.

My sister wasn't like any other teenage girl I had ever met, most girls loved slumber parties, they loved the makeovers and the movies and all the junk food, but Bella just choose to go to bed early while Rose, Alice and I had our own slumber party. It was kind of pointless without our guest though and I eventually stumbled my way up to bed as well.

However, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get to sleep, I tossed and turned for more then two hours. I couldn't get over the fact that Alice and Edward were going overboard on the whole 'keep Bella away' thing and I wanted to know why. Noone would explain it to me though and I worried for Bella, I wasn't so much worried about Edward and Alice I was more worried about why she wanted to defy them so much. It was fairly obviously that they believed her to be unsafe there or Edward would let her. I had wondered if jealousy was a part of it, Edward did have a tendacy to want to kill anyone who looked at Bella funny and im sure his mind reading didn't help. I still couldn't shake the feeling that it was more then this though, it was something in the way Edward acted and Alice was involved as well, which was unusual.

I turned over and tried to think of something else, but the only other thing in my head was the stupid school dance next weekend. I was pretty sure most of the guys in my class had asked me already, those I managed to get away from without answering, and I knew it was only an amount of time until I got cornered, without an excuse.

There was also Mike Newton, who had told me numerous times if I wasn't going to go to the dance I was welcome to go with him to his prom and that was a night I could definitly do without. Maybe I should get Emmett or Edward onto him, Japser and Rose could some in handy to. There was some great advantages to having a vampire adopted family, though I didn't think that would stop him.

So that left me with going back to the original problem, Bella's escape attempts. Why did Bella feel so compelled to visit La Push when Edward didn't believe it to be the best idea? What did Bella have with this Jacob guy? Could she have been cheating on Edward?

That was not like Bella at all, the Bella I knew would never do that to Edward. It wasn't possible, anyone that had seen them together would see that, they were perfect for each other.  
I rolled back over, onto my original side when I got frustrated by the fact that I wasn't going to find out, then I realised there was the one person in the house likely to tell me the truth.

I got out of bed quickly and tried to sneak out the door, forgetting the fact that there was two vampires still in the house. I tried to tiptoe past Alice's room but she looked up from sorting out her wardrobe as I past, so I gave up. I past Rose in the hallway on the third level, which meant she had been speaking to Bella, I was glad that Bella was still awake.

I knocked on Edwards door,

"what now?" I heard her mutter,

"Would you rather I let you sleep?" I asked, unsure now.

"April?" she asked, I opened the door, expecting to see her laying on the huge King bed, but instead found her on the sofa that was pushed to the edge of the room.

"I thought you would have been fast asleep by now,"

"I couldn't sleep," I said, shrugging.

"What's bugging you?" she asked concerned,

I hesitated, I didn't know where to start and I wasn't so sure she would actually tell me now that I was here. I bit the inside of my lip and looked around the room, there wasn't much to look at besides the bed though.

I looked at Bella, raising my eyebrows, "You don't like the bed?" I asked.

She frowned, "It's unnecessary," She mumbled, and looked distracted.

"Fair 'nuff" I said, walking over to sit on the bed, I certainly didn't have a problem with it. I thought that I had her distracted, but she turned to look at me again, concern all over her face.

I sighed, I was going to have to get it over with,

"What's the pull from La Push?" I smiled slightly at the irony.

"Oh that," She said looking disheartened, she wasn't expecting that answer.

She looked out the window for a couple of minutes and I started to think that she wasn't going to tell me either, this was getting really irratating I was just the little human who shouldn't be told anything and just sit around while her family were risking their lives.

I opened my mouth, but Bella was looking back at me so I shut it and waited.

"Its…complicated…" she said slowly, looking at me closely.

Oh great so now they though I was little and dumb, this couldn't get any better.

"Im sure I can keep up," I said curtly.

She didn't seem to notice my bad-temper, but continued to look at me as if she were trying to figure out whether I really could keep up or not. She sighed and started her story,

"Well… as you know when Edward left me I was pretty much a mess,"

"Yes, you were quite a mess when I spotted you running through Italy like a maniac," I soon felt bad when I saw her face fall, I tried to redeem myself,

"I mean who wouldn't be when they were trying to save part of their life even though they made it clear that they didn't love you," I was sure that wasn't much better, and I was also pretty sure that I should probably stop talking when Bella face crumbled and she sat with her head in her hands.

I ran over and sat next to her, putting my arm around her,

"Im sorry Bella, I tend to keep talking when I really should stop, I can't really help it I'm sure it hereditary, though that doesn't make sense either as Charlie isn't much of a talker, I truly am sorry Bella but I was just trying to tell you that I did know what you meant, about how broken up you were I mean…" I realised that I was rambling and closed my mouth tightly to stop myself.

Bella looked up at me slowly,

"Will you tell me the rest of the story?" I asked worried now that she changed her mind. She looked indecisive, "I promise not to say anything throughout your story,"

I promised it worked, she nodded, so I settled myself under her covers for warmth and looked at her, waiting.

"Well like I said I was pretty much a mess when Edward left," she begun again, looking at me, I just keep my mouth tight and waited for her to continue.

"Well if is possible I was even worse of at first, I only talked when spoken to, I would drive from school and home to my room without remembering the trip, I ate without tasting it, I was pretty much a zombie. Eventually Charlie got sick of it and told me to go out or something or he would send me to Renees."

My mouth dropped open and she looked at me smiling,

"What?" she asked, I shook my head, remembering my promise.

"You can speak April,"

she said, smiling wider now.

"Well I just can't see Charlie getting angry at you, his so laid back and non talkative and stuff."

She actually laughed then, "You should see him when Edwards involved,"

I laughed too, I had seen it as soon as Alice was out of the room that day Charlie turned into the ice man again, I was just glad he had hung his gun up, the looks he kept shooting Edward were very worrying.

"So what did you do, obviously you didn't get sent back because your still here in Forks."

She hesitated then, and I knew she was doing what Bella naturally did, editing.

"I went to see Jacob Black," she finally said.

"He became not just my rock, but my sun he lit me up and made me feel normal when I felt nothing but pain."

"He became your best friend," I stated, I remembered hearing Bella tell Edward that on my birthday, I knew who she was talking about now.

She nodded.

I still couldn't understand the tension, why it was such a big deal, why Edward and Alice had resorted to kidnapping to keep Bella away.

"but that's all it is right?" I asked her, "nothing more?"

"No, of course not, I would never do that to Edward." She said, appalled at the idea.

"Sorry," I said sincerely, " I'm just trying to work out what Edward has against this kid,"

Bella sighed slightly, "Well like I said before it's complicated, Edward and the rest of the Cullens don't exactly get along with the Quileute tribe down at La Push, and well Jacob's closeness to me doesn't really help the situation."

I had heard all of this before so it didn't really help me understand any of it.

"But why don't they hate each other so much?" I asked frustrated.

"They just cant help it," Bella told me, "vampires are pretty much their natural enemy."

"Is that why they were there on Saturday, to fight my family?" I asked, my eyes widening at the thought, they wanted to actually hurt these generous people?

"no, they were after Victoria as well," I noticed how she seemed frightened just mentioning that stupid, vicious vampires name.

then my eyess nearly popped out of my head when I took that in, _they wanted to fight vampires!_ Were they just stupid or suicidal?

"They were going to _fight _a _vampire_?" I asked incredulously,

she looked anxious, but not in the way that was a normal reaction to native boys running after a vampire, it was a look that told me she knew more then I did,

"They can take care of themselves," she said, though she sounded as if she were trying to convince herself as well.

"How can they, they are just _humans_. You don't see us chasing after vampires do you?"

"I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you more April, I really do, but it's not up to me to tell you, you will have to talk to Jacob, though I guess it's up to Sam really," The way she spoke this Sam's name told me he wasn't exactly on the top of her favourite people list.

She looked at me meaningfully,

"If Edward ever lets me go then I will take you down there with me, I'm pretty sure there's a bonfire soon."

I smiled, that sounded nice, I really needed to get out of this house but I didn't particularly like any of the Forks locals, maybe the people of La Push were better. Bella certainly seemed to like them.

Bella yawned and looked at her pillow longingly, but she looked back at me politely. This made me smile more; it was so like Bella to still act polite when she was annoyed and tired.

"I will let you get some sleep," I said slipping of the sofa and walking quietly over to the door.

"Night April," Bella said sleepily, head already on the pillow and her eyes closed.

"Night Bella," I replied, shutting the door behind me.

I ambled back to my room sluggishly, started to feel the sleep catching up with me.

I walked past Alice's room and saw that Jasper was back and that they were talking quietly, that must mean Edward was back as well. At least he wouldn't allow Bella to sleep on the sofa, which made me feel good knowing she would have a comfortable slumber.

Alice cut the conversation with Jasper of to yell out to me,

"His decided to stop keeping her away," a little part of me was uplifted with this, though my eyes were getting heavier. As I got to my room she yelled out again,

"But you're not allowed down there."

If I wasn't already asleep I might have felt annoyed. Maybe there wasn't any real reason to keep us away, maybe they just liked kidnapping people.


	13. Meeting Embry

I groaned again as I lay sprawled on my bed. I was bored, not just bored when you can't be bothered actually doing anything, but the boredom when you have nothing left to do. I had already played practically every game Emmett dragged me into, watched every available movie, finished my homework – yes I even done that – and Rose and Emmett had suggested I help them with something to do with a car, that didn't sound appealing so had resorted to cooking cookies, with Esme's help, I was pretty sure I had failed that miserably, by burning them. It was annoying and slightly amusing realizing that a vampire could cook better then you.

Alice had been serious in her prediction and I was now under house arrest for something I had not even done yet. It was worse then them trying to keep me away from Charlie, at least I could go to school then. Carlisle had pulled me out of school, under Edward's instructions, the day after my talk with Bella. It was Bella who I blamed for this part, it was her that had pulled off getting around her own kidnapping and now Edward wasn't taking any chances.

I suppose it would have been better if it was just Edward that was so obsessed with this, but the whole family seemed to be supporting the idea of keeping me away. I had expected Esme or even Emmett to be on my side but no, they just claimed they would make sure I wasn't bored. I laughed dryly as I thought about the fact that I was resorting to staring at my ceiling to find patterns to amuse me, even this had become familiar now.

I felt a small comfort in the fact that at least they didn't underestimate me. It was reassuring to feel that they didn't see me as a little kid to discipline, they saw me as a threat, or so I liked to tell myself. Truth be told, I had no idea as to why I was being watched like a serial killer about to make his move. So I had, using my vivid imagination, made up my own scenarios, in which I pulled off some amazing disappearing act where I somehow ended up in La Push, sitting around a bonfire like the ones Bella had told me about.

I spent most of the boring days – where I wasn't being lectured by either Carlisle or Jasper – laying on my bed imagining running around on the beach, being roped into some ridiculous game by a bunch of playful teenage boys.

I heard low voices from downstairs and ignored them; it was probably just Rose and Emmett discussing something stupid again. My curiosity got the best of me when I heard Emmett's booming laughter stop abruptly.

I got to the stairs as I heard Bella's voice demand loudly,

"What bet?"

I cringed, as I remembered the bet Jasper and Emmett had made.

I guess Jasper only started it as he was sick of being the one known for losing control. This didn't make it any easier on me though, I was still going to be the one left with no blood ties, the lonely human that wasn't allowed to meet her own father. I swallowed hard as I felt the familiar lump rise in my throat. I stopped at the edge of the stairs and closed my eyes. Then I heard Bellas voice again,

"Sure. Of course it will. I guess I could throw in a few extra homicides, if it makes Jasper happy. Why not?"

I sighed as I turned around opening my eyes, it was so like Bella. Think of others before herself. I could feel the lump rising again, and once again I swallowed and laughed, doing what I do best, covering up my feelings with laughter.

"You know Bella, you don't have to turn into a vampire to raise the homicide rate." I told her, attempting a joking tone.

Edward laughed and Bella looked thoughtful still. It scared me, I was afraid of what went through her head most of the time.

I scrutinized her carefully, trying to figure it out. Then my eyes feel on her arms, and the fact that she was cradling her hand, with a cloth over the top, no doubt full of ice.

I laughed again,

"What happened this time?" I asked her.

She looked disgruntled,

"Punched a w…, Punched Jacob."

My eyebrows shot up, I didn't know she had it in her.

"Damn Bella, what did he do?"

I saw the irritation flicker on Edwards face and I thought I knew what was coming,

"He kissed me," she said, disgusted.

"He what?" I asked in disbelief.

"And, and you just let it happen?" I asked Edward, horrified.

He shrugged, "I wasn't there, and if I was and I seriously hurt him, I don't think Bella would appreciate it."

Bella snorted and Edward rolled his eyes, something told me they had had this conversation before.

"What the hell made him think you wanted to be kissed? Wait you didn't kiss him did you?" I asked her, my mind was reeling what moronic idiot would kiss Edward Cullens girlfriend? These boys certainly had a death wish.

"Of course not!" Bella exclaimed in disgust, "I was trying to fight him off," she told me, holding up her hand.

"Did you hurt him?" I asked. I hoped she broke his nose or something.

"No," Bella said, sounding annoyed, "he didn't even flinch."

I laughed at her expression, "Next time try using a bat or something,"

Carlisle sat Bella down onto the sofa and started to examine her hand. I sat down on an arm chair opposite and watched, since there was nothing else to do.

I felt the irritation creep back into me as Carlisle confirmed that it was indeed a broken hand. He set to work putting a brace on it, since Bella told him a cast wasn't needed. I sat watching for a while and became increasingly annoyed; I was bored, but it wasn't as if there was anything else to do.

I let out my breath in a puff and Edward looked at me, I saw the annoyance flash across his features and the curiosity in his eyes as he tried, unsuccessfully, to read the meaning behind the soft sound that had escaped my lips. I knew that he longed to ask the question, no doubt burning just behind his lips. He had stopped asking me long ago after he figured out that I, unlike Bella, was not about to spill my secrets to him. I ignored him for the most part until he irritated me enough and I made something up, which just annoyed him more.

Sitting here, in my own living hell, though was one of the rare times I wanted him to hear what was screaming through my head.

"This isn't fair," I said, huffing again.

He raised his eyebrows at me and Bella looked confused.

"I'm stuck here, bored to death, and Bella gets to go around punching people. That's hardly fair." I clarified.

Edward chuckled,

"He _kissed_ me, and I ended up with a broken hand," Bella defended herself, pointing down to her hand.

"Wanna trade?" I asked her.

She just shook her head and Carlisle chuckled.

I sighed, yet again, and turned to Carlisle as he finished with Bellas hand and proceeded to pack up his things.

"When am I off house arrest?" I asked him.

"You're not on house arrest April," he replied calmly.

I frowned, "so I'm allowed out of the house,"

Now it was Edwards turn to sigh,

"April please," he started, but I wasn't going to let him finish,

"No why should I be sitting here, twiddling my thumbs while Bella is out punching and kissing people and who knows what else."

Bella gave me an offended look,

I tried to keep the angry look on my face but Bella looked crestfallen,

"Sorry," I mumbled softly and turned away.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes from the unfairness and irritation that had been building up lately.

I could feel Edward and Carlisle having a silent conversation beside me, but I looked away from this as well.

"I don't know…" Edward finally said slowly, I looked up to see Carlisle looking at him, trying to convince him of something. I didn't let my hopes get too high, I knew I would just be setting myself up for disappointment once again.

I allowed myself another look when Alice walked into the room; I could feel the hope bubbling in my chest and tried to keep it down. Edward looked down at me and I saw the indecision in his eyes.

He shook his head slightly and disappointment flooded my features once again, it amazed me that I still had the hope left. Then Bella soft voice spoke,

"Edward," she said, holding his arm. He looked down cautiously,

"It's not safe," he said just as softly.

Bella glanced at me and back at Edward, she seemed to be making a decision,

"What if it was only at Charlie's? It would get her out of the house and she wouldn't have to go near La Push."

I made a funny sound in my throat and everyone looked at me,

"Like I want to go near mouth rapists," I told them.

I heard Emmett chuckle from the next room.

Edward still looked indecisive,

"You could be there Edward, what's going to happen?"

I rolled my eyes then, like he wouldn't be there anyway.

Edward just looked at Alice, she shrugged, and he sighed. I jumped up and made to run and hug Bella, Edward seeing my enthusiasm as I bad sign pulled Bella out of the way and I ended up on the floor. I frowned up at Edward,

"Not nice," I tried to grumble at him but I was too happy, I approached Bella more cautiously this time and hugged her.

"Thank you," I told her.

Soon after Edward took Bella home, with nothing left to do I made my way to my room. I took my time getting ready for bed; I had a long shower, brushed my hair thoroughly and even spent extra time picking out the pajamas I wanted to wear. Though just as I had suspected when I finally lay down on the bed I was too full of energy to sleep, I just laid there, tracing the familiar patterns on my roof with my eyes.

I tried counting in my head, and gave up when I got to 30; I had no idea why people always told you to do that. I tried to think of things that made me sleepy, the only thing that came to mind was school and I didn't exactly have that at a ready I hadn't even been there for a while, I amused myself for a while as I thought of what my followers were doing without me, hopefully they found someone else to stalk, maybe they would leave me alone when I got back – if I ever went back – this cheered me up slightly. I remembered that I was happy that I had been pulled out of school at first as I had missed the dance that I was dreading so much. That happiness turned to irritation quickly as I realized I wasn't even allowed to go shopping, Alice and Rosalie had done it for me. Tomorrow I would finally be allowed out of my prison. Tomorrow I would be able to see something else besides the now boring forest surrounding it. Tomorrow… this wasn't helping me get to sleep; it was just waking me up more with the excitement swirling through my body.

I rolled over and saw the clock flashing 2:46, I groaned I really didn't want to be a zombie if I was going to be seeing Charlie tomorrow, I wanted him to have a better impression of me.

Though Edward assured me he didn't think badly of me, just that I was a very enthusiastic person, I was sure he was exaggerating that a bit. It was probably more along the lines of annoying, talkative, maybe intimidating, which was how mum always described me, why hadn't I listened to her advice? Oh right, I remembered now as I felt a pang of pain rip through me, I was trying to block those memories out, the memories of her on some beach that she dragged me to, of her trying to act cool in front of the friends I met on the many holidays, of sharing our secrets in bed, giving me a hot chocolate when I couldn't sleep at night… wait, when I couldn't sleep? Wasn't that what was happening now? How had I not remembered that?

I felt the sadness threatening to break through in the tears building up behind my eyes, oh right that's why.

I gave myself a few minutes to calm down, swallowing to keep the tears behind my eyes, before I hopped out of bed and made my way down the stairs.

I hoped we had some hot chocolate, I was pretty sure I would break down if we didn't. Luckily I found some at the front of the cupboard, how did they know these things about me?

I clicked the kettle on and walked over to the fridge to get the milk, I felt a carton and walked back over to me waiting cup. Then I felt a strong hand on my arm, the breath caught in my throat and I felt faint, believe it or not I still hadn't gotten used to living with vampires, who didn't sleep at night.

The strong hand let go of my arm and grabbed the carton instead, I put my hands on the counter to keep myself up and took a few shaky breaths, turning around to see Edward looking shocked.

"Why the hell were you going to put blood in your mug?" he demanded, he had an expression I couldn't figure out on his face, fear maybe.

"B…blood?" I stuttered I was confused, why would I put blood in my hot chocolate?

"Yes, blood," he said, holding up the carton with a black label clearing marker on the front of it in big bold letters, **BLOOD**.

"Oh, I thought it was milk," and this was when I wasn't even tired.

He looked relieved and in a second had replaced the carton with a white one, handing it to me.

"Thanks," I muttered and went to grab the kettle.

"What are you making?" he asked curiously.

I sighed; I could tell from the tone in his voice that this conversation wouldn't be short,

"Hot chocolate,"

"Why?"

Yep there it was, he wanted to know exactly the way my mind works, though I couldn't see how what I ate came into it.

"Because I couldn't sleep,"

"And this will help you," he questioned.

"Has in the past," I told him, as I finished making it and turned towards him, with it in my hand, taking a sip.

"Hmm," he said, all thoughtful like.

Another sigh from me, I wanted to go to bed but I hated getting that answer, there was always something behind it, I took another sip.

"What?" I asked him.

"Well…I just can't see how it would help." He told me truthfully.

I frowned; I thought about how best to put it, another sip.

"I guess it's the warmth," I told him, he didn't seem any less confused, "I like the warmth, it's comforting, it's relaxing, it makes me feel…content." I told him, it was the best I could describe.

He seemed to accept that explanation, though his forehead didn't straighten out, I finished of my drink, leaving the yucky stuff at the bottom of the mug.

"Why don't you just drink coffee?" he asked me, finally.

I scrunched up my nose, "'coz I don't like coffee, and it's full of caffeine, not really the best thing when your trying to sleep."

He nodded slowly, "Makes sense,"

I nodded sleepily in return, finally feeling the adrenaline calm down and the lethargy wash over me.

I looked longingly at the stairs, wanting to curl up in bed now.

"Oh, I will let you go to bed now." Edward told me, "We don't want Charlie to see you with bags under your eyes."

All I could do was nod again and head towards the stairs.

"Oh and April," Edward called from the kitchen, "Next time why don't you just ask someone?"

I nodded one last time and walked quicker towards the stairs to escape him.

I walked past Alice's room to see her and Jasper kissing softly, I would usually be gagging right now, maybe it was the sleep catching up with me, or maybe it's Jasper, but instead I felt like sighing in contentment. Maybe it was just that I longed for that with someone as well, not that I was willing to admit it to anyone, much less myself.

I fell asleep dreaming of the time when I would find the guy worth giving my life to.

…

I spent the next day hanging around Charlie's small house, it was nothing compared to the Cullens house but somehow I felt more comfortable here and right now I was just glad for a change from my three story prison.

Charlie had escaped down to La Push, claiming to go fishing with Billy; I suspected it was partly just to get away from my constant chatter. I wondered how we could be so different in personality, maybe it was meant to be that way, maybe I was making up for his silences – well that's what I told myself anyway.

Bella was trying hard to entertain me, she knew how bored I had been and seemed to have made it her mission to help me out. So she 'happily' let me paint her nails and do her hair in crazy hairstyles I had stolen out the many trashy magazines I collected– many of which I was not game to try on myself.

Edward sat in the corner trying to act like he enjoyed this, though we all knew he was just there as a precaution, I was offended that he still seemed to think I wanted to go to La Push after seeing the delusional acts that were pulled by the obnoxious native teenagers. It worried me to think of what Alice may have seen in my future.

I had just finished Bella's last nail and told her not to move, Edward didn't seem to want to leave Bella's side so I was the one that ended up climbing down the stairs to get more snacks.

I was at the bottom step, about to turn into the kitchen when the door bell rang. I heard Bella trying to move upstairs and to save my hard work on her nails I yelled up to her,

"I got it,"

I jumped down the last stair and yanked the door open.

A very tall, muscular man stood in the doorway, well at least that was my first impression however as I got past the chiseled body to the face I realized it wasn't a man, but a teenager.

This man, or teenager, was practically jumping in anticipation. He hadn't even seemed to see me standing there he was looking anxiously over my shoulder,

"Bella here?" he asked, still straining to look behind the door, the enthusiasm on his face gave him the effect of a being small boy, it was very amusing.

I ignored him and took the time to study him for myself; his ivory skin was wet from the rain, his short, messy hair sticking to his face, he was very attractive.

"Hmm," I said finishing my assessment, "So you're the jerk that broke me sister's hand?"

He didn't say anything, still concentrating on looking for the said sister, though a mischievous smile grew on his face, making him look even better. I could feel the blush creep up my face, I was glad he wasn't looking at me.

I made an impatient sound and was just about to follow my own advice and find Charlie's baseball bat when he spoke,

"Nop," he said, making a popping sound on the p. "I'm that jerks best mate,"

Suddenly there was a second guy standing next to him, not as tall but certainly as intimidating,

"Well so he likes to think," the second guy spoke. He at least had the courtesy to look at me.

The other guy seemed to take the hint and finally looked at me; well more like checked me out. He started from my designer shoes and worked his way up. I silently cursed at myself when he saw the low cut top I was wearing. A smirk seemed to form on his lips and I crossed my arms feeling self conscious.

I could hear Edward growl from inside, he was standing just behind the door, though I hadn't heard him approach.

The first guy either didn't hear him or didn't care.

The second guy looked uncomfortable,

"Quil Ateara," he told me, "And this," he said, shoving the other in the ribs, "Is Embry Call,"

It seemed that he finally took the hint as he peeled his eyes away from me and glared at the Quil instead.

"Uh…" I said not quite sure how to respond, "April Sw…Cul…" I wasn't sure whether they knew or not so I smiled, "April,"

Embry had the smirk back on his face as he turned slowly back to me, then his eyes found my face and the smirk fell off his face. He looked at me with another expression, one I couldn't quite explain, though I knew it freaked me out so I turned to Quil instead.

He seemed just as uncomfortable and rubbed the back of his neck,

"Well we just wanted to see if Bella was alright." He said, sounding unsure.

"Uhh…" I wasn't sure what to say. I wanted to shout at them to tell them that thanks to their 'best mate' she was certainly not ok. But the words got caught in my throat as I glanced at Embry again, he stood there looking shocked and slightly awed at the same time, it was making me feel exposed and I shifted uncomfortably.

Edward seemed to decide it was time to save me. He pulled the door open and put a hand on my shoulder,

"I will be sure to tell her," He said eyeing them off, with a disgusted and slightly confused look on his face.

The two men, or boys, standing in the doorway seemed to return the expression of disgust, Quil openly wrinkled his nose, like a bad smell had wafted out and Embry looked angry. He was looking at Edwards hand on my shoulder like he wanted to rip it off.

My eyes grew wide as he started to shake visibly. What the hell was going on? The boy that was rudely checking me out a minute ago was angry? For what? I couldn't think of anything I had done or said, but he was looking at me like he was seeing red.

"I think it's time to go," Edward said, looking at Quil. Quil just nodded and turned for the steps, Embry still stood there glaring at Edward and glancing back at me every few seconds.

Quil sighed and turning back around grabbed Embry by the shoulder. I didn't see what happened after that as Edward closed the door. He turned to look at me concerned,

"Are you ok?" he asked.

I just nodded; I was still trying to make sense of what had just happened.

Bella came running down the stairs then, tripping in her rush.

"What did they want," She asked when she had reached the last step.

"To see you," Edward replied,

"Then why didn't I speak to them?" She asked him, obviously confused.

"Ah," Edwards's eyes flickered to me, before looking at Bella, "They got a bit distracted," he finally said.

"Oh," was Bella's genius response, she seemed to be holding something back. But I blamed that thought on my paranoid mind. Jumbled thoughts were still floating through it, mainly questions. I was still standing there, trying to figure out whether I had said something offensive, surely not all teenage boys are like that. No one as ever reacted to me like that before.

My mind was still tumbling around and around in confusing circles, like a washing machine, that I only caught the end of what looked like a silent conversation going on between Bella and Edward.

Bella turned and smiled at me,

"I kind of ruined the nail polish," she told me guiltily.

I blinked a couple of times, figuring out what she was saying.

"Oh, nail polish right, well we are going to have to fix this." I told her, shaking my head and pulling her back up the stairs.

The rest of the afternoon Bella tried to think of various ways to entertain me; she even suffered through an action movie that I had picked from Emmett's collection. The whole time my mind was still tumbling around and around with the unanswered question, so I couldn't really concentrate on anything. Though if Bella and Edward noticed anything different the only signs they showed were quick glances at one another every so often.

I started to wonder if my mind was too hyperactive, and a little paranoid. Maybe that was just the way Embry usually acted, Quil or Edward didn't seem too concerned.

A tiny part of my mind hoped that he wasn't like that all the time, that he was better then that, that maybe…

I quickly squashed these thoughts; I didn't want to be having them about someone so confusing, so _angry._ I shuddered away as I remember the look on his face, the way his whole body seemed to shake.

What had I done? What did I say? Why was he so _angry_?

Again and again my mind turned these thoughts over and over, changing them around, thinking of something else, though again and again I came back to the same question. What was wrong with me?

"More popcorn?" Bella asked, snapping me back out of my thoughts. I smiled thanks at her and grabbed a handful. We sat back and watched as a totally fake fight scene ensued on the TV.

i got lost in the movie, though i knew as soon as i had time to think my mind would be the confusing jumble of a washing machine again.

**A/N**

**im realli sorry it took so long to update, but the website was under mechanic or something and woodnt let me get onto the log in page. i no dat was a realli bad excuse, but i changed my mind like 50 times about this chapter as it pretti much is the start of the actual plot of the story, i no use r all sighing in relief and saying finally. **

**anywayz hope use like it and just so u no i changed one of the chapters, i cant remember which one but i accidently had the same chapter twice so ive changed that now. **

**so review and tell me what you think, oh n i was reading someone elses story the other day and she had questions at the end of her chapters so i figured i wanted to write one at the end of this 1 n c who is paying attention to my little notes.**

**So what characterstic do you think u wood carry into the next life, do u think u wood hav any powers?**

**Tell me in a REVIEW!!!**


	14. Routines

My mind continued to tumble though it died down to silent questions at the back of my mind, pictures of a startled, angry face shaking at Charlie's doorstep.

Though these were saved for the night time, as I lay awake waiting for sleep to take over.

My life became a new routine a woke up, had breakfast cooked by Esme, the rest of the day was spent participating in the entertainment the rest of the family seemed to provide until Carlisle came home and my study time started.

This time was originally earlier in the day with Jasper teaching me, as the girls became frustrated with me quicker and Emmett was a constant distraction, with Edward being at school himself.

Though this turned out to not be the best situation, Alice had always been there to keep an eye on things and it seemed fine, until one day while I had my head down working, I became irritated by a maths question and pulled my hair up in agitation suddenly Jasper had flown from the room declaring it too much.

I had sat there in my seat, not quite knowing what to do, Esme came in apologizing though I hardly knew why, if anyone's fault it was mine. So from then onwards I have had to wait until Carlisle could get a break from work to learn, though I hardly saw the point, I was pretty sure I was above my grade and possibly the next two, Carlisle had a hard time finding me books to read as I had already finished the ones he thought any good and had gone on to give me books in various other languages which I bored of quickly and hardly got two chapters into them, as I already knew what would happen I hardly saw the point in finishing it.

Though Carlisle continued to argue that education was important and that I needed to graduate, in what I was not sure, as I wasn't sure whether I was actually going back to school ever and if I did I would be well above my grade anyways, which in turn would raise the suspicions of the teachers as I was hardly this to begin with.

However, I obediently, and reluctantly, sat down to lesson with Carlisle most afternoons, which seemed to pass too slow as I waited for what came after.

As every afternoon as Carlisle finished his teachings at exactly 3 o'clock I would pack up my stuff and rush down the stairs to meet Edward and Bella, who took me to Charlie's every afternoon.

I was pretty sure, yes only pretty, not one hundred percent, but I was pretty sure that Charlie was starting to get sort of used to me. Every night as he sat watching the various sports on TV I sat with him, not because I particularly liked them but because it was time that I could spend with Charlie.

This would have been a strange occurrence in any other house, some sixteen year old girl sitting pretending to be watching sports while really she is watching her friend's father that is actually her father also, and I could see in Charlie's face that this was strange to him to, though he never complained and Edward never alerted me that he may think me crazy or slow, so I continued this every day.

Until one day, as we did every day, when the sports were finished we went to the kitchen to eat the dinner, which Bella had so conveniently cooked though, unlike every day, Charlie spoke actual sentences, very unusual for someone that usually just observed my ramblings to Bella, Edward and himself.

"I was out fishing with Billy earlier today," He said, when there was a silence while I took a break.

That was certainly random, I looked at Edward, and he had a slight smirk on his lips, it raised my suspicions, though I said nothing and let Bella reply instead,

"How is the old man?" Bella joked.

"Same as usual, some of the boys were out there as well,"

A scowl formed on Bella's face, I expected a similar one on Edward two but he just continued with that stupid smirk, apparently trying not to laugh at my confused face.

"Yeah, I hope they're doing fabulously," Bella sarcasm was evident as she put her still bandaged arm on the table.

Edward smirk faltered a bit as his eyes flickered to the arm, then back to me as Charlie spoke again.

He seemed unsure how to get back on subject,

"Uh… yeah Jacob is really sorry for that, you should cut him some slack…"

Bella just snorted indignantly,

"Did you just bring this up to remind me of the reasons I'm currently ignoring Jacob."

Charlie's eyes flickered to me as well, before once again resting on Bella.

"Actually, they invited us, and April, to come to the fair they are having done there this weekend."

Bella's attitude changed at this, the scowl turned into a knowing smile as she readily agreed.

Charlie and everyone else- except Edward- went back to eating, though a silence had fallen over the table as I thought over this conversation.

I was pretty sure that something strange had happened at this table tonight, Charlie was talking instead of eating, Bella went from claiming she was ignoring Jacob to agreeing to go the a place where he would clearly be in a matter of 2 minutes and Edward wasn't frowning or looking disgusted at the name of the Quiletes, most of all he hadn't objected, I looked to him and he nodded slightly.

Very strange indeed, but I wasn't complaining, I would finally get the answers I was sure I wasn't going to get otherwise and I would be able to once again see the gorgeous guy that stood at Charlie's doorstep all those days before. Not that I would admit that I liked him, but I one of the reasons why I stayed here was on the off chance that he would once again turn up here.

**A/N this was originally called Damn Washing Machine and before that Prologue for Prt 2 but since i liked none of these and decided to go in another direction i have this chapter instead. i wrote it rather quickly so if there is mistakes im sorry. if u liked the prologue read The Sapphire Sun because that is continuing on with dat story. oh and im not sure what fairs are called in other countries but in Australia its generally a like i dunno how to describe it but it has rides and fairy floss and stands and that sort of thing so yeah... anywayz tell me what you think and sorry if there is any confusion but forget the prologue part ok wipe it from your mind **


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